Author's Note: You know that Ocarina of Time level? That one with the courtyard? This is inspired by that.
The night was brisk and brilliant. In front of the slender intruder was a dark, foreboding fortress jutting up from the ground and reaching above the Caldera. It looked impervious, and was constantly guarded, particularly the precise room that Ty Lee was determined on reaching.
However, not all was as it seemed. Ty Lee, looking like a silhouette in the moonlight, dashed across the dark grass, around the stunning red flowers, and she vaulted over the first wall blocking her way. That was the easy one; she then had to crouch behind another wrought iron fence and carefully watch the guards. They looked brutal, and they would have to be, guarding the royal family.
Ty Lee was well aware that she was unwanted here, and definitely disallowed. Things had escalated between she and Azula to the point where they had a terrifyingly close call. Close call as in immediately shoving each other apart and pretending to be doing friend things.
Therefore, in order to continue their affair, which at times like these, Ty Lee wondered about how worth the struggle it was, she had to sneak around in the dead of the night.
Despite the odds stacked against her, Ty Lee was not deterred, despite the difficulty. Nothing was impossible, and she kept her eyes focused on the beautiful Zen gardens. They provided foliage, statues, trees and pagodas that were ample cover for the practiced intruder.
She first slipped behind statues, and kept her light footsteps covered by the sound of gentle fountains. The type with water, not fire, and she was prepared to quietly slip into it if she ran into trouble.
But a rock that was not there last week cracked beneath her foot. Two of the guards did not seem to mind, but the one with the scar, who did scare Ty Lee, moved right towards her. Ty Lee thought quickly, and then saw the water and her last thought.
Well, she had no other choice but to very gently slip into the huge fountain that wrapped around. It was disgusting in her mind, despite being cleaned frequently. Turtleducks lived in it. Ick. She swam quietly beneath the surface, only coming up for air behind the small waterfalls in the shapes of Fire Nation mythological creatures.
No one noticed her, and she now just had to wrap around from this back entrance, and get into the second floor bedroom with the window opened. The palace really was not as impenetrable as they dreamed. Much like a certain drill...
She reached the gardens that were well protected; behind them was an inner sanctum, not that anyone important even went out there anymore. Ty Lee wrung out her braid, tried to make her wet clothes slightly drier, and then clambered up on top of the wooden structures with vines all over them.
Ty Lee was not quite sure what they were for, necessarily, but they definitely made for good cover.
She moved slowly and lightly, not at all perturbed by the long fall beneath her. At last she reached that gaudy Sozin statue that was always so well kept, and she jumped down gracefully, landing in the long shadow that he cast. Slowly, Ty Lee crept around, past the perpetually burning lanterns that could give her away.
Then she quickly climbed over the fence to the secondary gardens, the inner ones that no one could imagine someone getting into. Ty Lee figured it out ages ago, when she used to play in here with Mai and Azula. Once she knew she was out of sight from the windows of the servant's quarters, she started to run.
The final act of climbing was the easiest, but that made her overconfident for a moment. Her wet feet slipped on the smooth stone and she gasped sharply in panic. Ty Lee looked around with her eyes wide, hoping no one heard that outburst of sound. She clung tightly to the stone dragon, and waited, and waited. Nothing.
Ty Lee then used it as a jumping off point to move across a variety of rooftops, balconies and other decaying parts of the palace that once had life.
Finally, she reached the window she was looking for. She grabbed it with one hand and pulled herself through, glad it was still open.
It was only then that she realized how out of breath she was.
"I said ten minutes thirty minutes ago," was all of the thanks she got for committing a crime that could get her several years in the Boiling Rock. "Why are you wet?"
Ty Lee tried to speak, but she just coughed. Azula rose from her bed and walked towards the moonlight pouring through the window.
At last, Ty Lee said, "Why am I doing this again?"
"Because I asked you to," Azula remarked with a small smile and a shrug. "But honestly, you're dripping. Give me your clothes. There is a reason you have to climb through the window at midnight."
Ty Lee decided not to comment on the fact that the carpet would dry by morning, and that no one would notice. But she just stood up and stripped off the wet clothing. She still felt sticky beneath it, but it was better than it could have been.
"I heard this news story, the other day," Ty Lee said as Azula held the clothes that smelled like mud and strong perfume in her hands, wondering what to do with them. She shoved them into an ottoman as Ty Lee contemplated removing her underwear and bra, but decided against it.
"Yes?" Azula asked.
"About this prisoner of war in the Earth Kingdom. And he was dating the Fire Nation warden's daughter, right? And so every night for like three months he would break out of the prison camp to go have sex with her, and then he would go back in the next day."
"He didn't just go off running?" Azula cocked an eyebrow, looking as if she did not believe it.
Ty Lee would not have believed it, before this started.
"I think it was slightly less dangerous than breaking into the royal palace." Ty Lee shrugged.
"Because I am slightly better at sex than this unnamed woman."
"Probably." Ty Lee smiled and then lay down on Azula's bed. Her smile then faded as her wide eyes sparkled with whiny tears in the dim lamps. "But I'm really tired already now. And even my bra is wet and sticky. It feels so gross on me but I'm too tired to even take it off."
"Well, I hate helping people, but I can help you with that."
Ty Lee had a crooked grin, and she did promptly forget about how infuriating the puzzle of reaching Azula's window was.