She'd put on such a brave face earlier, but as soon as they were in their cell, Ty Lee began to tremble and cry like a small child.
"Oh Mai," she whimpered, "what have we done? We're going to die here, I just know we are, how could we have been so stupid? If only I'd kept my hands to myself, we wouldn't be-"
Mai grabbed her shoulders and shook her, hard, and the cries died down for the moment.
"Stop it." She gave the other girl a hard look. "You know as well as I do Azula had it coming and it was the right thing to do. We've let her control us long enough, Ty Lee, and if sitting in prison forever's the price we have to pay to have her out of our hair, then so be it."
"H-how can you say that?!" Ty Lee gasped. "Mai, Azula is our friend, we've all been through so much together ever since our days at the Fire Nation Academy for Girls! Don't you remember all the good times we had?"
"Ty Lee, Azula didn't ask to be our friends because she thought we were such nice girls. She wanted to use us for our skills and our connections," Mai said sharply. "She's a manipulative, malajusted, sociopathic bitch and anyone who doesn't realize it's been living under a rock!"
A long silence followed, the only noise being Ty Lee's quiet cries.
"I know," the acrobat finally said. "I've always known."
"Then why keep fooling yourself?"
Ty Lee sniffled and looked down at her feet, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.
"I love her. Even knowing the kind of person she is, I...I just can't help it, even if there's no hope for her..." She sniffled again. "I know this makes me foolish and crazy and weak, doesn't it?"
Mai thought of Zuko, how he'd dumped her without even saying goodbye to her face, howshe'd sacrificed her freedom for his life. How Zuko had spent most of his life trying to please a father who didn't care whether he lived or died.
"No more than most people," she said softly, drawing the girl into her embrace.