"Ugh, it smells like festival," Mai complains with her arms crossed. Azula does not comment; Ty Lee is distracted. Zuko has his arm wrapped around Mai's waist and he is unsure how to respond to her remark.
They stand in the middle of a Caldera street, the city illuminated by beautiful lanterns and flames, and bursts of shadow from street performers. Azula does not know how she got roped into this. It has been three weeks since they returned from Ba Sing Se, and already they are being pushed to the side by Fire Lord Ozai and told to do things for normal children. As if Zuko was not just a fugitive and Azula not just ending a century long war.
Azula cannot deny that the scent of festival is unpleasant. It consists of ten different kinds of incense and cheap spices made for street food, the smell of alcohol and the scent of civilians on an emotional high, producing enough sweat to make the crisp summer night damp and stifling.
"Someone find something fun to do with me right now," Ty Lee demands loudly, glancing between their friends. Zuko makes himself feel very small as Mai's heart briefly races. But Ty Lee's sparkling eyes, predictably, fall on Azula.
"I suppose I'll have to," Azula sighs, glancing at Mai in a way that screams 'you owe me.'
Ty Lee seizes Azula's hand and before Mai and Zuko can do anything, she has seized Azula and is dragging her through the festival. Azula barely can comprehend what is happening around her as she glances at the vendors and games that must be scams. The failed firebenders making shapes out of flame, like pretend dragons in the smog coated sky.
"Are you having fun yet?" Ty Lee demands as they reach the central square. Fireworks burst in the sky with the sound of a war being fought in the sky.
"We haven't done anything yet," is Azula's half-bored response. Ty Lee purses her lips briefly, glancing around.
"We could get something to eat. Or buy things or... play a game or something," Ty Lee offers, batting her eyelashes. Azula simply raises one eyebrow, unimpressed.
Ty Lee has been trying to get her alone. And in the middle of this beautiful festival, under the many shades of red made by the lanterns, she hoped she would have Azula to herself. But Azula has the same chilly coat of ice over herself that Ty Lee wonders if she will ever puncture or melt.
She is less the Fire Princess and more the Ice Princess romantically.
Azula will not admit that she also wants Ty Lee. The mutual crush goes unacknowledged because Azula knows there are much more important things in her life than a hormone driven teenage hot dream. Much more important things. Because invasions and comets and thrones are always more important than the girl clinging onto her sweaty hand right now.
"Aww, that's so sweet," Ty Lee whines, looking at a muscular boy with a Fifth Regiment tattoo winning a stuffed animal for his petite girlfriend. She leaps into his arms and kisses him with their tongues. Azula's neck bones become defined as she looks at it in disgust.
"It's unimpressive," Azula sighs, her nose slightly red. Ty Lee examines her closely, realizing Azula thinks she is so dumb that she cannot pick up on the fact that the romantic inclinations are reciprocated.
"Win me a stuffed animal, princess," Ty Lee says and Azula's left eyebrow pops up. "Please, of course."
"You can't order me around," Azula says coolly and Ty Lee bats her eyelashes yet again. Ugh. "Maybe if you beg."
"If I beg?" Ty Lee chimes, looking amused. Azula nods with her arms crossed.
Ty Lee decides she is going to give the princess exactly what she wants. In the middle of the filthy street, she gets down on her knees and wraps her arms around the princess's knees. Azula inhales deeply at the touch of Ty Lee's cheekbone against her hip. Rush of heat where she does not want it.
"Please win me a stuffed animal, Princess Azula," Ty Lee says in the gushiest voice Azula has ever heard. "I will forever be your servant."
"Okay, okay," Azula sighs, glancing at the people staring with fire flakes in their mouths. She knees Ty Lee and the acrobat gets up, wincing. "I pity you so deeply that I will win you a stuffed animal. I mean, I won a war, how hard could it be?"
"I appreciate your pity, princess," Ty Lee says sweetly and Azula is unsure if it is teasing or serious.
They walk to one of the games, of which Azula is certain are rigged. The woman working at it studies Azula and Ty Lee closely, sizing them up as competition for her work. Azula simply reaches into her purse and pulls out the appropriate amount of coins, dropping them on the counter.
"One round," Azula demands coldly and the woman nods, unsure what else to say.
She hands Azula three red balls and Azula touches one, her long nails brushing against the chipped lacquer. Ty Lee is jumping from foot to foot anxiously like a toddler and Azula wants to roll her eyes but knows she must focus on this game.
Azula tosses the first and misses. The next. The final one brushes against the bottles and fails. Azula's eyes narrow and flash, gold glinting with anger. Ty Lee chews on her fingernails as Azula demands another try.
Four rounds later, Ty Lee thinks Azula might burn down the entire festival.
"Do you know who I am?" Azula sighs as the ball bounces off of the bottles. Clearly rigged; it has to be. Never has Azula's ego been so wounded, and she thinks, at this point, she had wanted to impress Ty Lee.
"No," the woman says earnestly and Azula lights up two fingers. Ty Lee's face turns the same shade as her shirt as she hopes this does not end in a murder. Although... killing someone would be about as hot as winning her a stuffed animal.
"Does this ring a bell?" The azure fire twists and flickers and bends in the dark night. The woman blinks twice before it registers in her mind, and it looks as if she almost has a heart attack.
"Princess Azula," stammers the woman and Ty Lee stops biting her nails. Her eyes narrow slightly, eyelids heavy. This is even more attractive than Azula knocking down bottles.
"Are you proud of scamming me? I brought down the walls of Ba Sing Se, and I have the absolute power to exile you permanently from this Nation." Azula examines her hand as she speaks, although she watches the woman closely, reveling in the terror and sweat on her face. "I suggest you get my girlfriend a stuffed animal. Or three. Or I might have to tell my father I've been scammed. Or worse, take matters into my own hands. Fire is so hard to control."
Ty Lee has three stuffed animals in her arms, barely able to see through them as the woman is on the verge of tears and Azula is walking away casually and calmly.
"You called me your girlfriend," is all Ty Lee has to say. Azula chews on her lip; she did not notice.
"I suppose I did." Pause. "How about a thank you?"
Ty Lee kisses Azula, choking her with the fur of stuffed animals as Azula's cheeks flush with the touch of warm lips.
"Thank you," Ty Lee murmurs as the kiss breaks.
The carnival game was, by far, worth it.