I'm the manager of the Ember Island Eel Hounds and my task was to write a No-bending AU story
A/N: In the note, what is written between parentheses is supposed to be crossed out but FanFiction doesn't show it like that.
Ty Lee had decided to do it: she would ask Azula out on a date, even if Azula didn't like women, she would do it. But how to approach her? That was the million yuan question.
Azula Argead was the daughter of King Ozai and Queen Ursa. She had a brother who unfortunately died in a fire along with her cousin and uncle when Azula was nine. She was the leader of the debate team and had a perfect average in school.
At first nobody knew she was the Crown Princess, but then someone leaked the info to the media and Azula had bodyguards with her at all times for a while until for some reason they stopped escorting her around the school.
The teachers were in love with her; she was smart, never cocky or insolent (as might be expected from a girl who could have anything she could ask for), and excelled at any task. Her P.E. teacher once described her to his coworkers as someone with "the strength and physical condition of four twenty-year-old soldiers."
On the other hand, regarding her personal life, Azula was feared. She could've been a popular girl in the King Azulon High School but she refused to even speak to the popular kids, calling them "pompous brats with nothing but dog crap in their heads" in front of half the school in a lunch break.
She was known for getting into fights regularly but never got in trouble since she made sure said fights weren't in school hours and they never went further than a few punches given Azula's military-grade hand-to-hand combat training (making a lot of people wonder why someone would even pick a fight with her in the first place).
Azula was admired for her beauty by every boy in school and had the entire football team fighting for her; but she never even noticed them.
Ty Lee, on the other hand, was just a beauty that boys never took seriously and had a massive crush on the self-confident Princess. Azula had so much Ty Lee loved: it wasn't just her beauty or titles or what have you. Ty Lee love the way Azula fought debates like wars and won them in a crushing way, the way Azula's glare made her amber eyes burn with blue fire, and it had hypnotized Ty Lee like a moth flying too close to wildfire, unaware it could die in a flash.
Azula had the aura of a predator; she was cold and calculated every move, but to Ty Lee that was her most beautiful feature; she could feel how Azula did everything with a passion and calculated how she could get the best of every situation. Ty Lee admired how Azula never hesitated and spoke her mind no matter what.
Ty Lee could never stop eyeing the Princess and at lunch she would stare at her, only stopping whenever Azula became aware that she was being stared at; then Ty Lee would rapidly move the direction of her eyes to make it seem she was staring at some boy in Azula's general direction.
At first Ty Lee thought that she just was fascinated with being classmates with a princess, but when she couldn't stop watching her and her dreams were of her beautiful classmate doing things to her only boys had proposed to do with her, she knew her heart was hers.
Ty Lee had been thinking of possible approaches to talk to Azula about her feelings: she could try to talk to her and become her friend before telling Azula her true feelings, but she was afraid Azula would only see her as another girl trying to talk to her for popularity.
She thought of just being straightforward and stopping her in the hallways or someplace where she could tell her "you're amazingly beautiful and I'm hooked on every last thing you are and do," but was afraid of being taken as a stalker or being made fun of.
Ty Lee decided to write her feelings and place a note in her locker, but when she approached Azula's locker two men came out of nowhere and Ty Lee had to say she was leaving a note to ask her to come to a slumber party. Obviously the men told her to disappear and Ty Lee was at a loss as to how she could tell Azula her feelings.
She remembered Azula had one friend in school: a girl named Mai that had been transferred to the school after the media leak. Apparently they were childhood friends and, though gloomy, Mai could be asked things if you knew how to ask.
She gathered her courage and then went to ask Mai for the biggest favor she had ever asked someone.
"Excuse me, Mai? Can I ask you something?" Ty Lee approached Mai in between classes and Mai was looking for her books in her locker.
"No. Azula won't go to your party. She doesn't like anything girlish and won't go shopping in the mall with you." Mai sounded as if she had been asked something a million times, and most likely she had been asked given that she was in the Princess' favor.
"It's nothing like that," Ty Lee said quickly. "I wanted to ask you if you could give her this note. It's from…" Ty Lee stopped to consider what she should say next. "A friend. Yeah, a friend."
"Sure," Mai said to Ty Lee's surprise. "But most likely she'll burn it and your friend won't hear an answer. Unless she's in the mood and decides to make fun of him in front of the school." Ty Lee shivered in fear and for a second thought of not delivering the note, but her heart got the best of her and she handed it anyway.
The note was more of a letter and was in an envelope; it read as follows:
Princess Azula, I know this might seem like another love letter from a boy but it's not (well, it kind of is but I'm a girl but that's not the point!). I wanted to ask you to meet me in the study benches behind the school after you're done with your classes. I know you might be busy being awesome and all but I just wanna get things off my chest that can't be written down. I hope you come.
Ty Lee knew she stood as much of a chance with the letter as with any other choice, but at least she could hope Azula wouldn't show up and then her love for the princess would consume her in secret until she found another way. Or she could come to terms with the fact Azula most likely would never look at her in a romantic way since she didn't liked women, but Ty Lee had to try for her own sake.
Ty Lee dragged herself to the appointed place hoping to find just the empty space no one used after school, but as she came around the corner Ty Lee heard two voices. One of them she was able to identify as Mai. She was speaking to someone else.
"Do you think she'll show up?" Mai asked.
"I don't know, but anything to get away from the Palace, my mom is on another depressive-drama thing." Ty Lee screamed internally; that had to be Azula!
"Well, she loved your brother a lot. Thought the doctors said she was fine," Mai said in her bored tone.
"They said she had recovered from her depression stuff but that she would relapse until she made her peace. But they said that three years ago. A lot of time to make peace with someone that couldn't even do ten pushups. He was my age when he died and I can do two hundred like nothing. You know that better than most." Azula didn't sound like her cold, usual self.
"Yeah, but that stuff takes time and…" Ty Lee quivered as a knife missed her by a few inches. She fell on her behind and turned around to see Mai pointing a gun at her."Shit, it was just you."
"How did you know I was there? Why do you have a gun with you? And why did you almost kill me with a knife?!" Ty Lee asked on the verge of tears.
"I'll leave you two alone, ma'am," said Mai, looking at Azula as if asking permission.
"Make sure nobody comes and interrupts us, would you, Captain?" Azula replied. Mai lowered her gun and went out of sight.
"Captain?" Ty Lee asked, pointing with her thumb to the place Mai had gone.
"Long story. Are you alright?" Azula asked with her arms crossed and that inspecting look Ty Lee had come to memorize to the finest detail.
"Yes! I'm fine, princess, thanks for asking." Ty Lee stood up incredibly nervous at the fact that she was alone with Princess Azula, Heiress of the Fire Throne; Daughter of King Ozai, The first of His Name, Lord Protector of Albaren and King of the country Ty Lee lived in.
"I believe you wanted to talk about something," Azula said in that voice of hers Ty Lee found stupidly sexy beyond belief.
"Me? Oh, no, my friend Zhu Jon likes you but he was scared so he asked me to deliver the note to Mai but he later chickened out and I came here to apologize on his behalf in case you did show up. He wouldn't like to be on your bad side, not when you'll be Queen one day," Ty Lee rapidly answered, trying to hide away her nervousness and just wanting to leave without anything more embarrassing happening.
"I know it was you who wrote the letter. You don't have friends, the people you sit with during lunch don't even know you beyond how you look and you're shaking like a shaved tiger-cat in the middle of winter. That and the poorly crossed out part of the note that reads," Azula pulled the note out of the inside of her black jacket, "I'm a girl but that's not the point!"
Ty lee blushed; Azula was incredibly smart, maybe more than she was beautiful, and Ty Lee had herself to blame for making it so obvious that it was her who wrote the note.
"Sorry I wasted your time, Princess," Ty Lee said and was about to run off when Azula stomped the ground. "Don't you run away from me or I'll make sure everyone knows you have a crush on me. Wouldn't that be a nice treat for the cheerleaders? To laugh at you every time they pass by you." Her voice had the assurance of a statement, not a threat.
Ty Lee turned back looking down at the floor. "Okay, but…" Azula interrupted her. "But nothing. You said you had something to tell me and I want to hear it." To be fair, Azula did sound interested in what Ty lee had to say.
"It's complicated and kind of stupid," Ty Lee said, a little confused as to what to say. She never truly believed she would be face to face with Azula.
"I'll be the judge of that. And believe me when I say there is nothing as complicated as the politics that run this country," Azula insisted as she elegantly sat on the study bench, one leg over the other like the princess she was. Who was Ty Lee to deny her future queen?
"Well, the thing is, I like you. Like really like you. A lot. Like I can't stop staring at you at lunch and I can't stop admiring every little thing you do." Ty Lee started to list the things she loved about Azula as they came to mind, trying not to sound like a stalker. "How you made Lei Shi cry by figuring out from how she was walking that her parents where getting a divorce. Or that time in the debate school district championship that the guy you were up against ended up crying his personal problems after you figured his posture against homosexuals was based on his own repressed preferences. And I love the way your eyes glimmer as if you could summon fire out of your hands and burn people at your pleasure."
Ty Lee stopped, hoping to find Azula doing something to shame or mock her, and saw Azula was recording what she had been saying with her cell phone. "Are you done? Because I have something to say." was all she added.
Ty Lee continued. "I know I'm not much. I'm not a noble or very talented. I have six sisters that are identical to me so I am not special even in my looks. But I wanted to ask you if, well, you would like to go out with me to the movies or something? I'll understand if you say no." Ty Lee turned around, ready to run away and cry, when Azula grabbed her by the arm and twisted it into a hold position for a hand-to-hand fight, making Ty Lee release a little scream of pain that made Azula grin in satisfaction.
"What did I said about running away from me?" Azula asked. Ty Lee didn't answer until Azula put more pressure on the hold. "That you would make sure everyone knew I have a crush on you."
"Good girl," Azula said, pleased by Ty Lee's tone of submission.
"Please, Princess. My arm, it hurts," Ty Lee pleaded. Azula released her arm, bruises starting to form where the princess's nails had been.
"I can't go out with you. My father wouldn't like it if I went to such an unsecure location as a mall or a cinema without proper escort." Ty Lee was ready to hear Azula say that she would post the video on the Internet or something of the sort that would destroy her. "You can come to the Royal Palace and we can watch a movie there, is that good enough for you?"
Ty Lee wanted to throw herself at Azula and kiss the princess's beautiful lips, but knew better than to do that when moments ago Mai - if that was her real name - had pulled a gun on her for eavesdropping.
"You don't mind what I just said?" was all Ty Lee managed to say in response, trying to conquer her inner excitement.
"No. Most people think flattering me for how I look is the way to get into my good graces. They generally end up regretting trying to smooth talk me into anything," Azula said with pride. "I don't give a fuck about looks, what I want is the person, not the carcass they use to move around. And you, my dear," Azula licked her lips, "are quite the person."
Before Ty Lee could make any sense of what Azula just said, the princess leaned in and pecked her lips for what should've been the greatest five seconds in Ty Lee's existence. "I like honesty in people. It's quite hard to find someone who is still as honest and go-lucky in places like these where popularity rules over everything. That and that you're not exactly a bad sight to behold."
Ty Lee blushed at the compliment while Azula looked in her purse for something. "Here, come tomorrow to the Royal Palace's gate and show this to the guards." Azula handed Ty Lee a red and gold ticket with the royal phoenix that she immediately stored away in her backpack, making sure three times it wouldn't get lost in there.
"They'll take it from there and they'll get you to me. Don't come and I'll put the video of you confessing your feelings online and make sure people give you hell from here until you graduate from college. And I'll get a good story of how it got recorded without me being here, don't you worry about it." Azula's threat was convincing enough and Ty lee couldn't believe her luck.
"And so you don't have the excuse of 'I lost the ticket', hand over your phone," Azula said menacingly. Ty Lee complied as if her life depended on it. It most likely was the case.
Azula took it, added her number, and made a quick call so Ty Lee's number was recorded in hers before handing it back. "Message me later tonight, around nine."
Ty Lee made a note to do so after thanking whichever God she needed to thank for this miraculous thing that seemed like a dream.
"Oh, please keep to yourself the whole incident with Mai," Azula said before leaving.
"What incident? I never saw her here," Ty Lee said, already forgetting that Mai had pointed a gun at her.
"Good girl," Azula said before calling out for Mai. "Captain, let's go home."
When she was left alone, Ty Lee jumped with glee for she had done it, she had confessed her feelings to the princess and the feeling - or at least that's what those five glorious seconds meant to her - had been mutual. Things couldn't get any better.