Liars Start Fires

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Murder

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Fucked up couples like the two princesses rack up secrets like Iroh racks up Pai Sho points.

That is an inevitable truth in a sea of lies.

It isn't that they are completely fucked up but in love. Or maybe they are. Yes, they certainly are, but you don't have to be Azula and Ty Lee to see the world through the lens of a cheater. Some secrets make them laugh, like the time they cheated at that picture game on the Solstice and Zuko lost his temper because he knew but everyone just called him paranoid.

They got away with that and never told a soul, despite laughing about it together for years.

But, just like they know how to get away with cheating at board games or bribing their niece to keep quiet about that accidental fire, they know how to get away with murder, espionage and a whole host of other things that need to be forever unspoken.

Which brings us to Azula with her back pinned against the only exit, and Ty Lee on the verge of trying to run at it and break it down. She needs to escape. She feels claustrophobic. She needs to escape.

"You were completely valid in what you did." Azula is rewording the same sentence she has repeated a thousand times.

"No-no-no no I wasn't," Ty Lee gasps, her wide eyes stuck even wider. "Azula, I can't just do that. Nobody can just do that."

"Well, you did and you need to get over it. It isn't as if you've never had to before. You were a soldier."

"I was a soldier. I was a child soldier if we're being specific, but that's so different. It's your fault!" Ty Lee's eyes sparkle with tears.

Azula feels queasy about making Ty Lee cry, but then just angry. "How is it my fault?"

"You were the one who got caught! I was protecting you!" Ty Lee wails.

"Now that is an interesting form of protection. Hm." Azula realizes the consequences of what she said and rolls her eyes. "I am very grateful. It was, on your part, a kneejerk decision, a crime of passion, I mean, the point was killing the sole witness, so…"

Ty Lee stiffens and looks about to punch Azula's lights out."Are you saying that it doesn't count because no one saw it but you?"

"Yes. I absolutely am. No one really got hurt."

"Someone absolutely got hurt!" Ty Lee is starting to hyperventilate and Azula is starting to get very, very worried.

"We have discovered that we are a strong enough couple to carry a corpse together. Be happy about that level of romance and undying love." Azula cannot believe she said undying love but this situation is dire.

Ty Lee has that Zuko complex about trying to make up for what other people tell them are crimes. Azula has never apologized once for her monstrous deeds and she is happy that way. Her wife needs to be kept under control when it comes to things like this.

Ty Lee is silent for an unsettling amount of time. Then she finally whispers, "Azula, don't make me live with this."

Azula crosses her arms. Her wife should have anticipated that.

"I didn't make you do it, and you will have to come to terms with it." Azula sighs. She is getting nowhere and so she walks forward and dares to kneel. Ty Lee's eyes light up like the sun reappearing on a cloudy day. "What you did was for me, and I will never forget it. I think that it's incredibly sexy to have someone willing to kill for me, don't you?"

Well, Ty Lee does but she doesn't like the idea of herself being the killer. Ty Lee reaches down and gently touches Azula's hands, and takes them in hers, and the princess has to exert all of her willpower to keep this up.

She is not getting locked up for her whole life over this. If that means manipulating her gullible wife, she will kneel and sweet talk until she gets what she wants.

"Help me cope. I've helped you so much."

"Of course," Azula says, uncertain if she means it or not. She doesn't want Ty Lee to be hurt because of her in a thousand years, but she also doesn't think she is capable of helping someone else from having a mental breakdown.

"I'd do it again for you."

"I know."