-In this story Zuko and Mai broke up a while back, but remained friends-
As they were sitting in the dining room at the fire palace Ty lee's friends noticed she was acting weird. "Ty lee, what are you doing" Mai asked, seeing Ty lee blushing and twirling her fingers. "Yeah, you look nervous?" Katara said scooting over to ty lee, placing her hand on her shoulder. "Ty lee is something wrong?" suki asked, concerned for her warrior and friend. "All I can say is her heart is going a mile a minute!" Toph said picking in between her toes. Ty lee's blush now covered her face. "I-I…" she stopped when she noticed the other occupants(the boys + uncle) of the table were listening in. "I have to go, excuse me!" She squeaked and dashed out of the room. "What!?" Suki gasped barley catching her balance as ty lee brushed past. "Come on girls, I think ty lee needs to talk." mai said in her monotone voice.
Ty lee sat on her bed braiding and un braiding her hair, waiting for her friends, whom she knew would follow her. Right on queue the door squeaked open. "Ty lee, are you ok?" Katara asked sitting down on the bed, hugging ty lee closely. "Yeah, you almost knocked fan girl off her feet!" toph chuckled. Every one glared at her. "This isn't funny toph, ty lee's upset!" suki chided her short little friend. "Ty lee, whats wrong, you were blushing, acting nervous, and toph said your heart was going crazy, are you sick?" Mai asked standing in front of ty lee. "W-well, I-I sort of.." she left off again. "Ty lee, you can tell us!" toph said tapping her foot on the ground. "No ones going to tell." mai promised. "O-okay, well…I sort of have a…crush…" she winced as she said the word. "What!? you always flirt with boys and never get nervous, what's the difference now?" mai asked quizzically. "This one is for real, its not just joking around!" ty lee said emphasizing the word real. "So, who is it?!" Suki asked as they all leaned closer. "Zuko". she said in a small voice. "What?" everyone else said not catching the whispered name. "I have a crush on Zuko, okay!" ty lee said, turning into a tomato. Every one let their mouths drop open, then looked at mai. "M-mai, are you mad at me?" ty lee whispered about to cry. "…No." mai said, sitting down next to her best friend. "What?" ty lee asked. " tylee, I used to have a relationship with Zuko, it didn't work out, now we are just friends. I am happy you found some one you can like for real!" mai said, actually showing her emotions this time. She reached over and hugged tylee, ty lee reached and hugged her back. "Now," toph said cracking her knuckles. "Now what?" Katara asked raising an eye brow. "Now, we have to get Zuko to like her." "WHAT!?" ty lee yelped. "Yeah!" Suki said clapping her hands, "this will be awesome! We can all be in on it!!" "You would really help me get him to like me?" Tylee gasped, glowing. "Of course!" they all said…Thus begins their attempts for tylee to…woo Zuko.
"What was that all about!?" aang asked as the girls ran out after tylee. Uncle grinned as he got the feeling he knew, but he wasn't sure who. (if that makes any sense) "Eh, I don't know…the almighty fire lord should know though." sokka said waving his hand towards Zuko. "Oh, and why do I have to know?" Zuko asked glaring at his best friend. "Because she is your friend!" sokka exclaimed. "Well, she's your friend too!" Zuko argued back, sokka and Zuko went on arguing till aang said, "Well, Zuko this is your palace, aren't you supposed to know what's going on?"
"Yeeeeaaaah," sokka said smugly. "Aren't you supposed to know wha-" he was cut off as Zuko smacked the back of his head. "What was that for!?" sokka grumbled. "For being an idiot." Zuko said promptly. "What ever, stupid stuck up, big headed, mean jerk stupid-" sokka's mumbles were cut off as Zuko smacked his head again. "Now now boys lets just all get along, aaand, HAVE SOME MORE TEA!!!" uncle exclaimed happily.
"Okay, ty lee, we need to get you ready to woo Zuko!" Katara said grinning. "w-woo?" ty lee asked, her eyes were big and round as she stared up at Katara. "Yes, woo." toph chuckled at ty lee. "Okay, you have got the looks down!" suki said shifted her weight onto her other hip, striking a thinking pose. "Okay, mai what does Zuko like in a girl?" Katara probed. "Well, if he had a girl friend, he would want to be SURE she would be loyal to him, that will be a problem for you, tylee, you flirt way to much." mai said looking down at her frowning friend. "Like that time we were at the beach and Zuko asked me if I was cold and you said 'I am freezing', now that was really flirty…I didn't appreciate that…" mai left off. "Any ways!" mai continued before ty lee could apologize, if you like him enough you can do it." "Okay, also Zuko likes doing things to make the people he really cares about happy." mai looked at ty lee as she nodded her head smiling at the thought of Zuko doing things for her. "He also needs someone to comfort him…he…never mind." mai said eyes wide as she realized what she almost said. "What mai?" toph said leaning in. "Its not for me to talk about." she replied. "Are you talking about…" ty lee left off. "Yeah, that was horrible." mai said shuddering. "What!?" the other three exclaimed. "Well, when Zuko was about thirteen he-" "ty lee shut up!" mai scolded. "Come on you can tell us!" suki said putting her hand on mai's shoulder. "Fine, Zuko never talks about it though, we found this part out through azula" Mai said quietly.…"when Zuko was thirteen, he went to a war meeting with his uncle." mai stopped and looked at ty lee to continue. "From what azula said he spoke out against a general who made up a terrible idea. So Zuko was challenged to an agni kai, a fire duel. Now this is the part we saw for our selves. As he went out to face who he thought was the general, he faced the corner, he turned and faced not the general, but former fire lord ozai, his father, he-" ty lee stopped and tears started coming to her eyes, she looked at mai as if saying she couldn't continue. Mai continued. "He begged for forgiveness, he got down to the floor and started to cry, not wanting to fight his father, the man he looked up to, and…loved, at least he did at the time." mai said. "So, he begged but his father punished him, by lighting his fist, and striking Zuko's face, I-I remember it like it was yesterday, azula watched smiling, delighted to see Zuko in pain. Me and ty lee sat there stunned and horrified." "Iroh turned so he didn't have to see." mai stopped and sat down and patted the now lightly sobbing ty lee. "When we heard him cry out in pain, it was horrible, I remember azula laughed." Ty lee spoke again "And if that wasn't enough, Lord ozai banished him and sent him to catch the avatar as the only way for him to even be allowed to set foot back inside the fire nation. He wasn't evil when he tried t always catch aang, he was just desperate." ty lee concluded, by then all of them except toph and mai were crying. "So, that's how he got his scar…" Suki whispered, ty lee nodded. "We…should c-calm down and s-start helping ty lee again!" Katara stuttered as she cried, trying to direct the conversation from something so sad. But the thoughts never really left any of them.
"So, ty lee, why did you run out of dinner yesterday, what did you girls talk about?" Zuko asked as he walked next to ty lee as they all went into the town. "O-o-oh I just had to…um…make my bed?" she said almost as a question. "Why did you have to make it then and why did all the other girls have to go?" Zuko said not buying the making her bed thing. "Theeey, ummmm…HEY LOOK AT THAT!" ty lee cried out, every one turned and ty lee took off. "What was that about?!" Zuko exclaimed. "I don't know." uncle said smirking, he'd figured out who she liked. "Lets go find her!" mai said exasperated.
When they found ty lee, she was sitting under a tree playing with the squirrel-doves, smiling and giggling softly. "Ty lee?" sokka called as they saw her sitting. "Oh, hi sokka!" ty lee hopped up and walked over on her hands. "What was that all about flippy?" Toph asked looking in the direction of ty lee. "Ooooh, yeeaaah, well I-" "why did you run when I was talking to you?" Zuko asked as he walked up behind toph. "OOOOOOH!" toph said, Katara slapped her hand over toph's mouth. "Oh what?" aang asked scratching his head. "She meant to say…she was hungry!" ty lee said raising her index finger it the air. "Yeah, iam hungry." toph said as she walked by ty lee moving her eye brows up and down.
As they were walking to get toph some food, Zuko walked up beside ty lee again. "Really ty lee, why did you run away?" "Zuko, can we talk about this later?" she said in her usual peppy voice, smiling a 100 watt smile. "Fine." Zuko said, for some reason he just couldn't say no to that smile.
"So, why did you run away ty lee?" suki asked. "Well, Zuko started asking me why I ran away at dinner, then he asked why all of you girls had to come with me, and so on!" she said giggling. "You seem much happier about this than you did before, why is that?" mai asked with a raised eye brow. "Well, I have decided I am going to go back to my normal self, and try to be positive about all of this!" she said as she flipped over and balance on one hand. "That's good!" Katara said praising her friend. So, do you want to go to the spa or something?!" ty lee asked jumping up and down. "Sound fun!" suki and Katara chorused. "Eh, fine" toph agreed grudgingly. "What ever lets go" mai grumbled.
"Where are the girls?" Zuko asked as he flipped through all the papers he needed to sign. "I believe they are at the spa, isn't that a lovely idea!" iroh said grinning. "Hm, yeah…I never did get the answer from ty lee about why she ran away…both times." Zuko said looking up from his paper work. "Ah, a young girls heart is a delicate thing, my boy don worry, it will come out soon enough." uncle said sipping his tea casually. "You know why, and you didn't tell me when I asked?!" Zuko exclaimed. "It was none of my business." iroh shrugged. "Just tell me please uncle!" Zuko asked getting impatient. "Zuko, if you want to know you are going to have to ask her yourself." Uncle replied, standing up and walking out. "That old man." Zuko said shaking his head smiling lightly.
"Ahhh, this is just what I needed!" suki said, soaking in the hot spring with the others. "Yeah, it actually feels good to be clean once In a while." Toph said crossing her arms behind her head and leaning back. "Well, if only you could stay clean all the time!" Katara chuckled. "Oh shut it sugar queen!" toph said splashing water at Katara. "Agni, you people are so loud!" mai grumbled. "Come on mai, lighten up! We are at a spa, we can talk about anything we want, join in the conversation!" Ty lee said waving her arms around. "Speaking of talking about any thing, what is your next move on Zuko?" Toph asked scooting closer to ty lee. "Um, I am not sure…" she said putting her finger on her chin. "Come on what happened to the flirty ty lee that taught even got azula to get a boy?" mai asked stretching her arm out. "Well, that was funny!" ty lee chuckled. "I was watching them and they didn't even know!" ty lee giggled. "They kissed and azula started talking about world domination and all that crap, then he just scooted out of there, hahaha, good times!" ty lee said as she played with her hair that she had let down from its usual braid. "Remember that talk we had on the beach with azula you me and Zuko?" ty lee asked mai. "Yes, then we crashed Chan and Ron jhons party." mai let out a rare chuckle, "That was the most fun I had in a long time, that was also when I first broke up with Zuko." mai said, her small smile fading. "Yeah, and when we found so much out about each other, we even found a soft spot in azula." ty lee said sighing. "Do you miss azula?" Katara asked ty lee and mai. "Well, sometime…" tylee answered her smile turning into a frown. "I guess every once and a while." mai shrugged. "We go down and visit her every once in a while." Suki and Katara gasped. "Does Zuko know you two go down there?" toph asked sitting up. "Yeah, he usually goes with us when we go." ty lee said shrugging. "She was always my second best friend, I cant forget her so easily, can I?" ty lee asked them turning her head a bit. "Who was your best friend?" suki questioned. "Oh, that would easily be mai, and she still is and I am her best friend too, but we always told azula she was our best friend, it was for our own safety." ty lee said wiping a towel on her face. "Ah, the memories!" ty lee exclaimed.
"Come on lets get out before we turn into prunes!" Katara joked.