Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.

Ships: (Friendship) Mostly - Ty Lee/Mai. Mentions - Azula/Ty Lee (Romance) Mentions - Zuko/Mai
Warnings: Ty Lee Angst (D: )

Empty Promises

Ty Lee turned around as she heard someone enter the library. "Oh, hi Mai!"

The other girl looked around the room as though seeing it for the first time. "I can't believe my eyes. You really are in the library."

Ty Lee giggled, turning from a bookshelf with a scroll in hand. "Yeah, well, there isn't much to do when you're not in a circus. So I thought, 'I haven't read, well, anything for a while,' so...here I am!"

Mai nodded unenthusiastically.

"So, uh, what brings you here?" Ty Lee asked, pressing the wooden dowel into her palm.

The black-haired girl shrugged. "No reason really. Azula interrupted my date with Zuko and she made some really lame excuse about me needing to come untangle your braid."

Ty Lee blinked, disappointed. "Oh?"

"Yeah, and I knew my hair would be on fire if I tried to come between those two. So I thought I might as well come and follow through with Azula's excuse. No telling what can happen if you don't do what's expected of you, right?"

The lighter brunette nodded. "Right."

Mai, who had been standing next to a desk, picked up a quill pen and reflected that it would be much prettier if it was a dart. She put it back down, turned back towards the door and said, "Well, be seeing you around then."

Ty Lee's eyes widened and said, "Wait! Where are you going?"

The other girl looked back at the doorway. "I promised Zuko I'd go on a picnic with him. And we're not finished yet. Maybe Zula's done talking by now."

"Oh, I was sort of hoping..." Ty Lee took a breath and started again. "You see, I'm performing at the court dinner, and I was hoping maybe you could watch me? Give me some critiques?" She hoped that would work. Mai loved to critique.

Mai turned back to the hall. "I hate performances," she said, and left.

Ty Lee stared desperately at the empty doorway. Words screamed in her head, but she never opened her mouth. "Azula's off doing royal stuff, and you're away with Zuko. I'm so lonely. Where are my friends? Where are the promises I made?"

She sunk to the floor at the bottom of the bookshelf, the scroll unraveling from her hand across the floor. In the quiet of the library, her sobs echoed.

AN. I wonder what Ty Lee has been doing for the first couple of episodes of S3. I imagine she would be lonely with Azula and Mai off doing stuff on thier own. So when she was mentioned in this weeks episode (The Headband) I wrote this up a couple of minutes later. Hurray for early Canadian airtimes! Too bad we didn't get the Nick Mag though. :(

Oh yes, and about Ty Lee's line about not having read anything in a while: I imagine there wouldn't be a lot to read in a Fire Nation circus other than...like...food menus, and Ty Lee wouldn't want to read those anyway.

Avatardly yours, (XD) TSS.