"H-Hi." Ty Lee's clear voice rang through the stone room eerily. She hated eerie. "How are we doing?"
Azula pointedly glanced at her bondage and the door to her cell. (The Avatar had already taken her bending, but they still had to chain her up because she consistantly attempted to throttle anyone who entered.)
"Right," Ty Lee hastily agreed. "Prison. That's kinda gloomy. Hey!" She plopped down next to her old friend. "What happened to your hair? Did it burn off?"
"I cut it," Azula droned. That was out of character. She had never been the droney type.
Ty Lee, eager for something to do, began to weave Azula's hair into a braid. "You always had such nice hair..."
Azula laughed, quietly at first, then very suddenly erupting into cackles that filled the room and startled Ty Lee into dropping what she was doing- literally -and bringing a hand to her heart.
"Don't scare me like that," she chided, resuming her task immediately. Her hands didn't even tremble.
"Don't pretend you don't fear me," the ex-fire-princess said almost grandly. This was the Azula Ty Lee knew, but there was still something off, something loose...
"I don't," Ty Lee answered flatly.
"You always feared me. That's why you stuck around, did whatever I said...That''s why you're here!"
"Azuula, calm down!" Ty Lee pleaded.
"WHY ARE YOU HERE?" Azula demanded in a shriek, and Ty Lee hugged herself, forcing Azula's negative energy to not take effect.
"Azula, I'm your friend," Ty Lee said simply, moving to sit across from the other girl. "I care about you."
"No one cares about a dethroned fire princess," Azula answered matter-of-factly.
"Azula, it never mattered that you were a fire princess," Ty Lee said. "Sure it mattered to my parents, they told me to be nice to you, but that's what they said to all of my sisters. Why do you think I kept contact even after I joined the circus? Why do you think I'm here now?"
"Ty Lee, why am I here?" Azula asked with a sudden bout of very real, very visible panic. "W-Where is my father? Where is my mother?"
Heartbreakingly, that was when the time ran out for Ty Lee's visit. As she was escorted away, back to the world of smiles and makeup, Ty Lee felt a tear escape her right eye, and she knew that, contrary to the plans that she'd made in coming here, this would not be where and how she broke off connection with the Fire Lord's sister.