"You don't know me, so why don't you just mind your own business?" He felt his anger start to flare up. How dare she? She knew his family, she knew how they had treated him, she knew how much they had hurt them. How could she ask such a stupid question? If she didn't know how much he wanted burn those painful memories she obviously didn't know him as well as she though he did. The more he thought about it, the more his rage seemed to get the better of him. The one person he thought he could count on to understand obviously didn't. At all.
Her large, doe-like eyes fell to the fire. After everything they had been through, how could he say that? She scoffed, trying to mask how much his biting comment had stung her. "I know you…"
Never underestimate the power of laughter. Even when things are at their darkest and it doesn't seem like life is worthwhile, if you can find humor, if you can find your laughter, you can find the sun again, and that split moment of sheer joy can make all the difference in the world. The world doesn't seem so dark, and you feel as though anything is possible. Laughter has the ability to change your whole perspective on life. Laughter is the original pain-killer. Never underestimate laughter.
"Here's the way it goes…" said Azula, hatching away her little scheme. After a mid-summer day of smoldering heat in the Fire Nation, the earth finally began to cool as the sun made its daily decent.
A young Zuko listened irritably; his stance wide and his arms crossed. He was uncomfortably hot, and to make matters worse he was now being forced to play with his malevolent sister and her two minions.
Next to him stood an even younger Ty Lee, clad in pink and eagerly waiting for Azula's plan to unfold. She too was uncomfortable, but it was the repellency of the prince's aura rather than the heat of the day that had caused her to shift her weight around restlessly. She cast him a sideways glace, only to feel the need to look away again. That was the first time she ever really took notice of Zuko.
It was definitely not love at first sight. Quite frankly she really didn't care about him at all, it was just that this was the first time she had actually become aware of his existence. Sure, they had technically known each other for years, and she knew that her best friend had a crush on him, but she had never really been aware of him before, never considered him as an actual human being; he had always just been present in the background.
As the young acrobat's train of thought began to wonder away uncontrollably, from the boy standing next to her to the animated fire fantails cooling off in the nearby fountain, said boy had gone and tackled Mai into said fountain.
It certainly shook her out of her daze, and she giggled at the sight. However there was another feeling that rose inside her, a more insidious one that she couldn't quite put her finger on. All she knew was that Mai was getting Zuko's attention (finally) and that that irritated her.
In a split second Ty Lee decided that is was much safer to join Azula in her ridicule than to have the princess notice the look in her own eyes and become the target of it, so she pointed at the two children in the fountain and intentionally humiliated her best friend. However, after Zuko had stormed away she saw the look of utter mortification in Mai's eyes, the look of a young girl thoroughly embarrassed in front of her first crush masked by the aloofness of Mai's usual demeanor. It was a rare and confusing look that tugged on Ty Lee's young heart and made her sincerely regret her decision.
"You two are such…urg…"Mai groaned, exasperated.
Instead of apologizing for things she couldn't take back, Ty Lee chose to lift her friend's spirit as well as she could and offer her a little encouragement, "well, you did look cute together. And he was super embarrassed."
Mai's pale cheeks turned a lovely shade of red, "you think?" The little glint of appreciation that appeared in her eyes revealed that Ty Lee was forgiven and she beamed as brightly as the sun.
Azula simply rolled her eyes. "Whatever. What shall we do now?"
Up until now Ty Lee had tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her leg, however now her crimson blood had began to soak through the fabric of her pants and she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. A short while ago the Fire Nation princess had knocked her down in a moment of temper and it had done a little more damage than she let on. Story of her life.
"Um, Azula," she started cautiously, "I think I need to go get my leg fixed."
While one of her friends looked over with concern, the other simply muttered, "baby," and walked off.
Ty Lee took her cue and limped towards the palace in search of a royal servant. Instead she ran into Princess Ursa, Zuko and Azula's mother, who kindly offered to patch up the small but painful wound.
She was led to a large sitting closest to the courtyard where the girl's and Zuko had been playing. It was elaborately decorated in fabrics and furniture of every shade of red. While the room was large enough to house two or three komodo rhinos comfortably, Ty Lee guessed that it was only one of the smaller, less significant rooms in the palace, possibly constructed for the use of guests. The young girl was sat on the scarlet sofa while the older woman began to work on cleaning the wound. "Ty Lee," she started, her voice kind while holding the smallest hint of suspicion, "what happened?"
The little acrobat didn't miss a beat, "I was practicing gymnastics and I fell down." She was not about to snitch on Azula and risk being burned.
Ty Lee's relationship with Azula was a complicated one. Being the same age of the Fire Nation princess, and being the daughter of nobility, it only seemed natural that she and Azula would become friends, and she honestly did enjoy her company, however hard it may be at times to withstand. But there was another dimension in their relationship; Ty Lee was irrevocably drawn to Azula, and however many times the young princess hurt her, she would always come back for more. A large part of this was the respect she held for Azula, and, no matter what she did, Ty Lee would always want her to like her. And then there was the twinge of self-worth she always got when she knew that she, Ty Lee, was one of the Fire Nation princess's best friends; a golden treasure that separated her from her sisters.
Ursa, although not entirely convinced by Ty Lee's lie, chose to let the matter slide. "I'll be right back," she said, looking straight into the younger girl's eyes, "I'm just going to find a servant to get a bandage." And with that she elegantly rose and flowed out of the room as only a noble woman could.
The intense, albeit kind, gaze of Princess Ursa had unnerved Ty Lee a little. It was by no means harsh, but it was a look that made her feel as though the older woman was staring through her soul. Azula's mother had always been civilly gracious towards her, and had even shown great kindness occasionally, but the young girl couldn't help but feel as though Ursa didn't entirely trust her. It may have had something to do with the company she kept. However Ty Lee got the feeling that the extreme, soul-bearing look was something she had been born with. Azula had the same kind of look, however where her mother used it to find the little piece of good she knew existed in everyone, Azula used it to draw out a person's deepest insecurities and exploit them to her advantage.
Left to her own devices and an injured leg, Ty Lee could do little more than sit perfectly still and investigate her surroundings in more detail. Although the room had many windows, a few of which showed a spectacular view of the outside fountain, she couldn't help but notice how dark the place seemed. But she had observed the whole palace seemed to have that feel. Like there was no laughter, no happiness. Even in the livelier areas, such as the grand ballroom, it always seemed as if the life had been sucked out of the place.
She was staring out the window, waiting for her friend's mother to return, when she saw a shadow in the door out of the corner of her eye. She tilted her head in the direction to see Zuko standing in the doorway, still soaking wet from the fountain. Curiously, he walked over to the girl sitting on the sofa. "Have you seen my mother?" he questioned, a little absentmindedly. He was intently looking at her hurt leg.
Ty Lee nodded, "yeah, she'll be back in a moment."
If Zuko had heard her, he didn't show it; he was still examining her leg. "What happened?" he asked, finally shifting his gaze from her leg to her eyes.
Once again, Ty Lee didn't miss a beat, "I was practicing gymnastics and I fell down."
The little prince shook his head decidedly. "No you didn't," he challenged, looking straight into her eyes, "you never fall down."
She drew in a breath; there was that look again. That intense, golden, soul-piercing look. However Zuko's stare was completely original from either his mother's or sister's. Ursa's was one of kindness and hope while Azula's was one of manipulation and cruelty, but Zuko's, on the other hand, was laced purely with empathy and innocence and was as unthreatening as a baby mouse-lion cub. Where his family's eyes sought to pierce the soul, his only objective was to understand it.
She was frozen momentarily, mesmerized by his golden gaze, but she recuperated just as fast and continued to hold onto her secret. "How do you know?"
"I know you," he shrugged simply and nonchalantly, no weight being placed on his words. It was just a simple fact; he had observer her in the past and he fancied that he knew her, or at least knew her well enough to know that she didn't simply fall down when she was practicing her acrobatics.
Her eyes widened a little and then fell to the ground in simple defeat. There was no point in arguing with someone who wouldn't be argued with. "Azula was angry that I beat her at cartwheeling and she pushed me down and I fell on a stick," she finally admitted, silently praying that Azula wouldn't find out she told.
Zuko's golden eyes narrowed slightly and a small, empathetic frown appeared. He knew the feeling. He sat next to her on the sofa and, in a soft voice, asked, "does it hurt?"
Ty Lee nodded simply, "yeah, a little bit."
The prince's frown only deepened. "I'm sorry," he said with such sincerity that it astounded her. She wondered to Agni how he and Azula could be related by blood.
She dared to glance at him now, while he was still looking at her with genuine concern. She wondered how he could be so compassionate towards her after she teased him not but five minutes ago. He had started to resemble the room that surrounded them; cheerless and dull, and it made her feel immeasurably guilty for sharing her momentary unhappiness. Instead of apologizing though, she put on her peppiest face and laughed, "Hey, it's only a small cut. And at least it was only gymnastics. If it were firebending she would've probably had me banished."
Her attempt at cheering him up had worked; he snapped out of his gloomy state and even graced her with a small laugh.
His laugh was such a wonderfully rare, blithe laugh that it delighted Ty Lee to the point where she couldn't help but join in, and the two of them sat there for what seemed like the longest time, filling the once lifeless room with the magical sound of their laughter until a servant appeared in the doorway, bandages in hand and informing Zuko that his mother requested his presence to read a letter from his Uncle.
Zuko slid off the sofa and strode proudly out the door, evidently excited to hear news from the Dragon of the West, and leaving Ty Lee to the mercy of the servant. However a moment later he seemed to remember himself and appeared in the grand doorway once more. "See you later," he said, offering her a shy smile before disappearing again.
"Bye Zuko," she replied, although she knew she was out of earshot.
It was odd, Azula always made Zuko out to be some sort of social skills deficient mama's boy, but he was nothing of the sort. Azula always lies, she reminded herself.
As the sun started to set outside the window, and the palace servant went to work bandaging her leg, Ty Lee smiled to herself. She had just made a new friend.
A/N: Hi everybody (: It's been a fair while since I've written anything. I guess you could say I just got the urge to write again. Not inspiration, unfortunately. Just an urge. Anyway I came up with the idea for this one after watching the EP, "The Beach." Ty Lee's comment was very suggestive and the show never went into any detail about their relationship, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Anyway, I hope you guys liked it so far. Please leave a review and if you have any comments or suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.
This chapter's a bit short for my liking, but what are you gonna do? Hopefully I can make the coming ones longer. I should have a new chapter up by the end of this weekend if all goes well (:
Thanks for reading x