AN: A Tyzula Week story, for the prompt "Blue."
/Blue Skies/
It was the anniversary of Sozin's Comet.
She always got bad around this time of year, and Ty Lee knew it. She had spent much of her life with Azula, dealing with her worst days and her best. They even had a baby together; of course Ty Lee was well prepared for the nightmare this anniversary would bring. The pain Azula would be in, which turned into pain that Ty Lee felt.
Ty Lee cared for their little one as Azula remained in bed, staring at the ceiling.
Once her baby was happily settled, Ty Lee rose and walked to the bedroom she shared with Princess Azula. She walked to the windows and froze in place.
"Do you want me to let some light in?" Ty Lee offered, smiling faintly. Azula did not respond. "I can leave them, princess."
"No. Open it. I don't fucking care," Azula snaps, clenching her fists. Ty Lee's lower lip trembles but she holds it inside.
Princess Ty Lee opens the curtains and Azula slowly stands up. She walks with a blanket wrapped around her, a mess. It was clear she had been crying but Ty Lee was too smart to point it out. Azula sat down on her window-seat and looked out at the sprawling blue skies. Cloudless and the purest, happiest color.
"Is this some kind of joke?" spat Azula. Ty Lee cringed. "Even the spirits have forsaken me."
"Azula, maybe that's a little…" Ty Lee did not have a word for it. She just gazed at her wife with pleading eyes. Azula turned away and walked to her bed.
"Blue skies. Cloudless and pleasant and…" Azula punched the wall. Ty Lee jumped. It left a dent that would not be easy to fix. "It isn't fair! It isn't fair! All the little kids playing outside and all the people babbling like the idiots they are about the weather! People should be miserable! I am miserable! I am miserable and everyone else should be too!"
Ty Lee withdrew slightly. She knew that it hurt Azula to know how many people celebrated the End of the War with parties.
The best thing that happened to many people was the worst thing that happened to Azula.
"Hey, princess, maybe instead of going away from the city for the anniversary we could stay here. It makes it less complicated with the little one too," offered Ty Lee, sitting up and walking towards her wife. Azula gently pushes Ty Lee away.
"Why? Why would I listen to those fireworks and watch people grinning." Azula has a sudden flashback of the chains tearing against her wrists, leaving them bloody, mingling with the water on the drain to turn pink as they surround her. Pink like the sleeve of the girl who pulls Azula into her arms and holds her until the shaking and gasping for air as if she drowns again is over.
"I mean shut the windows and close out all the night. We turn on some candles and we just sit in here, in your room. We do whatever you want all night. And we don't have to see any of that. We don't have to see blue skies or people celebrating," said Ty Lee, smiling as she took Azula's trembling hand gently in hers.
"I don't care what we do. I really don't. I'll be in agony no matter where we are." Azula shrugged as Ty Lee plunged the room into darkness again by closing the blackout curtains.
"It's gonna be a nice night, I promise," Ty Lee said, winking at Azula.
While the princess wanted to believe that, she did not.
But she supposed it made things a little less painful that Ty Lee cared the way she did.
It was not like the first anniversaries, the ones where she attempted suicide, or broke down and broke things. Or the one where she got into a duel with Zuko and barely stopped herself from killing him. That landed her in a jail cell until Zuko explained her fragile mental state. She was amazed he didn't ship her off to an asylum.
Having someone there made things a little better.
Misery enjoys company.
And Ty Lee was happy to share misery with her true love.