A/N: Some Quick Facts About This Fic:
Chapters: 30
Pairing: Azula x Ty Lee
Rated: T for moderate violence, violent references, mild language and sexual themes.
Notes: This is a revised repost of a fic I worked on years ago. I lost love for the story and stopped writing it, especially when I became so busy with my premed studies, but I've been going back to writing and I want to finish and be more active with my fanfictions. I reread it and pulled out my old outlines and started to fall in love with it again. I'm resuming writing this fic and I'm posting what good material I already have as this first chapter. Everything else will be 100% new, fresh, and going steadily in the direction I originally intended for the fic. Thank you for clicking, for bearing with me, and I hope you enjoy the show.
SEPULCHERED SUNBEAMS
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
"Annabel Lee" — Edgar Allan Poe
CHAPTER ONE
Ty Lee is five years old when she first sees Azula.
The fateful encounter occurs on Ember Island. Ty Lee sits perched atop a sand dune, peering over at the house beside her own.
Azula looks sad. She is not crying, or anything that usually means a person is in emotional agony, but Ty Lee feels it. She knows it because she always has had a talent of reading vibrations, auras and feelings. Azula's aura radiates a cold, heartbroken blue.
Ty Lee sneaks up on her neighbor, climbing the impossibly tall walls of sand and clambering over the edge. She has wiggled on her belly away from the private beach where she lives with her grandparents, whom have forbade her from doing exactly this a thousand times. Other people own these beaches and they will not welcome her.
Ownership, Ty Lee learned once she was three or four, is something of a bad word. The Fire Nation likes to own things, and likes to own both what it hates and what it loves. That caused the Civil War that orphaned Ty Lee. Because once the Fire Nation owned everything, it ate itself alive.
Ty Lee stabilizes herself with her fawn fingers, lowering down to the sand, gazing at her arms—the hue of light driftwood—and her grimy fingernails. Her braided brown hair tickles her back as she focuses her wide russet eyes on the girl below.
The girl she spies on is firebending. Her fire is blue! It is the most incredible thing Ty Lee has ever seen. She must be Ty Lee's age, but Ty Lee never has seen her at school or anywhere else. Her beautiful raven hair ripples, outshining the ocean waves composed of shades of cool. Her ivory skin glows in the fierce sunlight that beats down on the land.
Ty Lee only learns her name because an elderly male voice quietly, softly, calls it out from the house Ty Lee cannot see from her secret perch.
"Azula, it is time for dinner. Come inside now with your brother," the mystery man says, his voice carrying on the breath of the wind. Azula grimaces and destroys her sandcastle before rising. She glances around at her surroundings, looking for the invisible eyes of enemies and Ty Lee quickly ducks behind a stray plant sticking up out of the hot sand. Once she gathers her courage and looks up again, the other young girl no longer sits on the beach.
Ty Lee stumbles home after that, tripping over herself with her thoughts preoccupied by the strange image of Azula. Azula, and the name sounded so familiar, but Ty Lee certainly never saw her anywhere other than that on the capital city of the island.
Sozin City, named for a Fire Lord who lived long ago.
Azula is an inhabitant, but not one of note to anyone but Ty Lee.
[X]
As a five-year-old, Ty Lee's absolute favorite word is why.
It is a dangerous word, her grandparents tell her again and again. 'Not asking why is important,' grandmother will say firmly, the same fear in her eyes she has when Ty Lee plays too close to the deep water. But grandfather will counter, 'She is a child, and she will learn.'
Ty Lee sits quietly at the big table tonight, of which she once asked, 'Why is it so big?' and grandfather answered, 'Because it was built for many more people,' and Ty Lee knew better than to ask more, even as a little child.
"I saw a girl today," Ty Lee says, kicking her damp, sandy feet beneath the table as if she runs while she eats. She only studies the food on her plate. Grandmother doused the taro in heavy pineapple sauce, a mixture Ty Lee does not think should exist.
She ignores the food and knows grandfather will later give her fruit with sugar rations on it, or perhaps some of the coconut cookies grandmother keeps hidden.
"That's nice," grandmother says warmly. "You love making friends. I thought you were already friends with every kid on the island, actually."
Ty Lee frowns. "I've never seen her before at school. Or any playgroup or even the beach or even the market or even anywhere!"
Grandfather furrows his brow.
"Is she new?" grandmother asks. Many refugees do flock to the island, but Azula seemed too rich to be one of them.
"No," Ty Lee says, shaking her head. "Maybe. I don't know but I thought the house over that way was empty. Everybody says it's deserted and haunted." And then Ty Lee's small face lights up with utter horror. "Was she a ghost?"
Grandfather chuckles, while grandmother glares into her food.
"There's no such thing as ghosts, Ty Lee," he kindly says, but it does not convince Ty Lee. "But there's a reason people stay away from that house."
"Why?" Ty Lee thoughtlessly asks, twisting her springy black hair around her dark finger.
"There aren't places that are haunted by the dead," he says, confusing Ty Lee. "But there are places that are haunted by the living."
Grandmother scoffs and laughs. "Ugh, stop trying to be so poetic."
He just smiles at her, and Ty Lee continues hacking up the food she does not intend to eat.
[X]
"I hate when you try to take me places," Mai groans as Ty Lee tugs and tugs on her. Mai's parents slathered her in sunscreen and Ty Lee would be laughing at the scent, but she likes weird people the best. Mai was from the Mainland—Caldera itself—and her parents were politicians ther, before the Civil War struck. No one spoke to her mother, or her, because they were tainted somehow by her father's actions, and her mother now raises Mai alone. Mai, whose hair ribbons do not make her fit in any better. Mai, who hates everything in existence, which does not help people find her more approachable.
Mai is as light as Ty Lee is dark. She has pallid skin and deep cognac eyes, with gossamer black locks of hair and a perpetual cold grimace on her thin pale lips.
"We have to try to meet Azula," Ty Lee whines as they scamper through the filthy streets.
No one in Sozin City pays them much mind. They are known, as everyone in this village are known, and children run about freely every day. Ty Lee once heard that other kids live differently; they cannot play wherever they want because they live outside of the Sozin City Walls.
"Your ghost friend." Mai blows on her hair and it just gets stuck in the cream on her face. Ty Lee loudly laughs as Mai peels the loose lock off and grimaces. "Great." She then sighs and Ty Lee just shakes her head with a huge grin. Ty Lee smiles bigger than her body most of the time.
They climb over sand dunes until the walls and the shops and the people of the village fade away. Ty Lee shimmies down and Mai slides awkwardly after her. And then they are here; they are right where Ty Lee saw Azula building a sandcastle.
"This is somebody else's house," Mai says quietly, the reality of their illegal activities suddenly setting in. But Ty Lee brushes her off and takes her wrist in one sticky hand.
"It doesn't hurt to look," Ty Lee says eagerly and Mai lets her only friend drag her to the dilapidated stone steps.
If it were nighttime Ty Lee probably would have run away already, because this place is so creepy. But in the light of day, it just looks old and sad. There are places that are haunted by the living. Ty Lee still has no idea what those weird words grandfather said meant, but she has them in mind as she climbs the steps and Mai becomes more and more restless.
"Who are you?" says a voice that makes both girls loudly scream.
It is a boy. A boy a little older than them maybe, and he stares like they just walked out of the water and transformed from mermaids into little girls.
"I'm Ty Lee," Ty Lee says quickly, glancing once at Mai. "We're looking for a girl."
The boy narrows his strange golden eyes. "I don't…" He looks uneasy as he wrings his hands and keeps looking around for help.
"It is alright, Zuko," says a much gentler male voice. It is the same one that called Azula's name, that gave Ty Lee that golden name she cannot forget.
A middle-aged portly man walks and kneels to be at eye level with them, as the boy, Zuko, walks up the path and into the derelict house.
"You two should probably go home," says the older man. He looks kind, even though Ty Lee usually thinks everybody has a kind heart. The man's frizzy grey hair rests in a topknot and his chubby body does not move much. With a warm but concerned expression, he says, "It is unwise to go into forbidden places."
"I just want to see her," Ty Lee says as Mai slowly backs away to flee. "I, uhm, she dropped these earrings."
She holds out a pair of golden earrings that she hopes Mai will not recognize as her own. Ty Lee swiped them from her pocket at school. Maybe she is a bit of a kleptomaniac, a kleptomaniac who does cartwheels all the time and probably would befriend sea anemones if they could talk. She thinks this older woman knows she is lying, but the woman nods.
"I will see if she wants to talk to you," the older man gently says and Ty Lee grins brightly.
It takes a few minutes, and Mai keeps muttering, "We should go. He's probably going to come back with weapons or handcuffs and eat us or something…"
But then, there she stands, Azula. Mai stares, relatively unimpressed.
Azula skin is sunburned and her legs are bony and the dress she wears is a bit too big, and her raven hair is tangled, but she holds herself like she is a goddess.
"Who are you?" Azula coldly demands and Ty Lee decides she loves her voice.
"Have these," Ty Lee says, pushing Mai's earrings into Azula's hands. Mai rolls her eyes.
Ty Lee waits with bated breath until Azula coolly replies, "I don't have pierced ears."
"Mhm. That's not a problem! I can pierce them sometime, if you'd like," Ty Lee offers, her smile not faltering for a heartbeat. She refuses to leave until she befriends Azula.
Azula stares at her as if she speaks another language. "Keep them. And please leave me and my family alone."
She speaks like an adult. Ty Lee is not certain if she likes that, or if she likes how Azula's words make her stomach feel bad like when she has the flu.
Ty Lee holds the golden earrings in her sandy dark brown hand. She sighs and then realizes that maybe Azula does not know what it means.
"I gave you the earrings because I want to be friends with you!" Ty Lee calls after Azula, whom has only taken a few steps away, but already might as well be in Caldera, for all Ty Lee knows.
Azula stops walking and Ty Lee's heart swells with hope. And, slowly, Azula turns around. For the first time, Ty Lee notices how her icy golden eyes glimmer.
"I don't have friends."
She leaves.
[X]
Over the next few days, Ty Lee thinks about Azula constantly. But her grandparents keep her busy with a succession of activities—gymnastics is her favorite—and school events. Yet, when the week off comes, like it does every few rotations of the moon and sun, Ty Lee is left mostly to her own devices.
Mai is sick, and when she gets a cold it might as well be the plague. Therefore, Ty Lee plays on the private beach behind her house and builds sandcastles and then knocks them down. At the moment, near evening, she sings soft lullabies and steps around in the water while looking for new friends. Little fish, or crustaceans... or that starfish that stuck itself to her hand and she cried and cried when her grandfather had to hack it to pieces.
Suddenly, she hears someone behind her.
"Who are you singing to?" asks a voice Ty Lee thought was so, so, so pretty.
"The… well," Ty Lee says before screwing up her small face in thought. "I guess whoever's listening."
Azula cocks an eyebrow, but does not make harsh judgment.
"You aren't terrible at singing," Azula crisply says and Ty Lee loves her voice but is baffled by her speech. She sounds like an adult, an authority figure, but she is small and young. She also sounds like she does not hold much casual conversation.
"You can look with me, if you want," Ty Lee suggests, frantically rubbing her muddy hand on her stained pink clothes before extending it to Azula.
Azula looks at it, purses her lips and ignores the gesture. "Look for what?"
"Oh, well, I'm looking for little animals! And they like to be sung to, I think," Ty Lee says boldly and Azula's lip does a funny thing that Ty Lee does not understand.
"Maybe," Azula tentatively agrees, glancing over her shoulder in the same way she did when Ty Lee saw her building that sandcastle.
Azula does not sing with Ty Lee, but she does explore the tidepools alongside her.
By the end of the week, Azula winds up mouthing the words to Ty Lee's songs sometimes, when she thinks Ty Lee is not looking.
After that, Ty Lee and Azula develop a routine. Azula climbs over the sand dunes and slides down them gracefully. They look for animals together. Ty Lee does not hide how much seeing Azula thrills her.
The sand dune that separates them has become a mere mound and not a mountain, but, still, it reminds Ty Lee that they are not as joined as they often feel.
Ty Lee always sings, "Two lovers / Forbidden from one another / A war divides their people / and a mountain divides them apart…"
One day, Azula asks, "I'm pretty sure there has to be more to that song than those lines."
"I forget most of it," Ty Lee says brightly before shifting to, "Leaves from the vine / falling so slow / like tiny fragile shells—"
"I hate that song," Azula regally snaps and Ty Lee does not know if she is teasing or not. Ty Lee never can tell with her. She just knows that if she smiles and stays true to herself, friendship follows.
"Mmm. Maybe. I don't know if I can go anywhere else. I've never been outside the walls but it's not like I'm forced to stay inside. I bet I could leave if I wanted."
Azula looks startled by that for some reason. Ty Lee does not think she has ever seen Azula look surprised; she always has a smug sense of superiority about her.
"We're trapped here. You know that, don't you? The war has us trapped here on this disgusting island," bitterly says Azula and it is Ty Lee's turn to be shocked.
"I don't know what you mean."
Azula blinks and then says, "The Fire Nation is having a Civil War. That's why we're here. We are on neutral ground since we are reasonable far from the Republic of Cascadia."
Ty Lee does remember studying various wars in school. There was one in which the Fire Nation conquered the world, and Sozin's Comet made it all theirs. And a Civil War that ate the Fire Nation alive.
"I thought that was over."
"Mm. Yeah. Then who won, huh?" Azula gazes at Ty Lee with disdain in her grey eyes. "Oh, but there is no war on Sozin Island, according to the pamphlets and officials and school curriculum, right?"
Ty Lee frowns. "I, uhm, I…"
Azula shrugs it off. "It's fine. We clearly had very different childhoods. I like 'Don't Fall in Love with the Traveling Girl' better than 'Leaves from the Vine' but perhaps we can try to find out what the rest of 'Sozin' is about," she says, returning the subject to singing to the fish.
Perhaps is a weird word Azula says often with her strange clarity of speech. Ty Lee wonders about Azula as they continue their pursuit in the ocean. Ty Lee thinks that maybe Azula is someone even more important than Ty Lee truly believed.
"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Ty Lee asks as Azula moves to climb back over the sand dunes and go home.
"No."
And she is gone.
[X]
Ty Lee is nine when she first kisses Azula.
They have been secretly visiting each other for four years, and they have grown up hiding in various places, and Azula has not mentioned the war ever again. Ty Lee matures and Azula seems to like that, and they gradually begin to understand each other.
Ty Lee has fallen in love with Azula's aura, and how it shifts between deep rich blues and complex purples.
Cold colors, because she is cold. Even if she is so often as brilliant as the sun. Maybe even burning brighter than it, at times.
Ty Lee gazes longingly at Azula when she first kisses her dry lips. The sun beats ferociously on them, and it frames Azula's body with surreal light. She looks like a deity, crammed into the body of a scrawny nine-year-old who is definitely beautiful beneath her sunburns and messy, sandy black hair.
It only makes sense, at that moment. Ty Lee leans forward, propelled by the glorious sunlight, and kisses Azula tenderly. Azula enjoys it; she does not push Ty Lee away. They linger there together, breathless for a few heartbeats.
Of course it does not go further than that, because they are just children.
But Ty Lee does think the way Azula looks at her changes.
[X]
Ty Lee is ten when she learns how little she knows about Azula.
"I've never seen eyes like yours before," Ty Lee says one day while she and Azula sit in their favorite hiding place.
It is an abandoned boathouse that belongs to Ty Lee's grandfather. He no longer goes out to sea. He claims his back aches too much and he hates his friends whom he used to fish with.
It smells like decaying wood but Ty Lee's time there is beautiful nonetheless.
"My brother has my eyes. So does my uncle." It is the first Azula has spoken of her family in the five years they have known each other. Ty Lee assumes the older man she met long ago is Azula's uncle.
And Ty Lee pauses, wondering what she should say to that. "You don't talk about your family at all. Or anything. I feel like I've known you for five years, and you know everything about me and I only know your name. I mean, I've blabbed all my deepest secrets and you're…"
Their second kiss happens in that instant, and Ty Lee knows Azula is trying to shut her up. All the same, it still feels good. When Azula pulls away and Ty Lee looks at her, the sun shines through the cracks in the boathouse walls, illuminating Azula, again, like some sort of goddess.
She looks like the sun itself, radiant and magnificent.
"Your eyes are so—so golden—and they fit you because you're like—you're like the sunniest day," Ty Lee breathlessly says, her head spinning.
"So? Golden is just a descriptor," Azula says, now looking very uncomfortable.
"I didn't mean to upset you," Ty Lee says softly, touching Azula's foot.
Ty Lee's fingers against Azula's ankle makes Azula jump and flinch. Ty Lee nearly falls into the water when Azula leaves in a hurry, looking frightened, or embarrassed, or anything but the composed young woman Ty Lee has gotten to know over the years.
It is the first time she loses Azula, but it is also the briefest.
[X]
Azula returns after disappearing for two weeks.
She stands on top of the sand dune separating their houses, looking like the Queen of the World. Agni, she looks stunning. Somehow, Ty Lee thinks the sun just always shines on her, as if the eternal star revolves around the girl.
"My uncle says you can come over for tea, if you want," Azula calls from her high perch while Ty Lee sings to the fish.
Ty Lee smiles and graciously accepts the invitation.
Azula orders, "Come at sundown."
Azula vanishes after reappearing for two minutes.
[X]
Ty Lee tells her grandparents about the tea and they exchange a concerned glance before grandfather says that Ty Lee can go. She bounces around excitedly and then tries on a million outfits, unable to pick the right one.
It feels completely strange and alien to Ty Lee. She wants to look dazzling for reasons unknown. She wants to floor Azula, the girl who lives in the haunted house next door, but she does not know if anything she has will work.
She gazes into the mirror and sees a muddy girl with calloused hands, sandy braided brown hair in disarray and a sun soaked smile. Azula is far more beautiful than that, and Ty Lee wonders if that means Azula will think she is ugly.
People always tell Ty Lee she is remarkably pretty, but she cannot tell the difference between lies and true compliments.
In the end, Ty Lee settles on a very simple pink sundress and decides against going barefoot despite the short walk. She clambers over the sand dune and walks up Azula's front steps, wiping sand from her shoes with loud scuffing noises.
"Welcome, Miss Ty Lee," says Azula's uncle in his perpetual warm tone. Ty Lee remembers him from when she was a little girl, and so she smiles. "I am not quite done with the tea, but my niece is certainly eager to see you."
Eager to see me? Ty Lee thinks, before wondering why she is thinking that. It doesn't matter. She's my friend, and friends are always happy to see each other.
Azula waits at a small tea table, looking up at Ty Lee with a cold but somehow hopeful expression. Ty Lee smiles and sits down on a cushion in front of her. Ty Lee takes a few moments to examine the room around her. This is no ordinary home. It is a vestige of something that was great and marvelous, like a palace. But it is old, shadowy and broken. Derelict, a derelict dream-house and Ty Lee tries not to be sad about that.
Clearly, Azula and her brother and aunt are perfectly happy here.
And, Ty Lee knows, life is far too short to be anything but happy.
The fancy tea is completely and utterly wonderful. Ty Lee cannot stop complimenting Azula's uncle, Iroh, on his tea making skills. Ty Lee talks at the speed of light, which makes her realize she should have asked for tea with less caffeine and sugar, but Azula thankfully does not seem bothered by it. In fact, she seems to revel in the attention Ty Lee gives her.
As the tea winds down, Ty Lee goes to find the bathroom—a necessity given how much tea she drank—and dares to explore the house a little more. She can see why people called it abandoned.
On her way, she passes portraits that look strange. She recognizes pictures from her textbooks. They are of families, royal families. Ty Lee wants to have suspicions about the haunted house, but she lets them slip out of her mind.
They seem too implausible or foolish, even to a young girl who sings to the fish.
[X]
Ty Lee introduces Azula to Mai when they are ten, and the friendship does not develop quickly, but works. And to Ty Lee, that is all that matters. Azula and Mai have plenty in common, and, soon, their vagabond group of misfits wanders the walled city day and night when Ty Lee and Mai do not have school.
People in town do not ask many questions about Azula, because asking questions here is generally frowned upon.
In a few sentences, Azula is a compulsive liar, Mai likes to shoplift worthless things, and Ty Lee just loves them both regardless of anything awful they do.
Sometimes they play cartwheels and Azula pushes Ty Lee when she does them too well.
Often they swim and Mai sets her feet in the water and then runs back to the warmth and safety of the sand.
Sometimes they lie awake all night talking to each other, forgetting what sleep even is.
[X]
"You like her a lot, don't you?" Mai asks Ty Lee one bright, glistening morning.
Ty Lee stares at Azula, and how the sun always frames her.
"Of course I do. Azula is my best friend. Uhm, other than you," Ty Lee says quickly and Mai slowly shakes her head.
"You like her as more than a friend," Mai reiterates and Ty Lee now looks at her feet.
The fear that Mai might be right constantly grows inside of her.
[X]
Growing up is messy, very messy. But that is, Ty Lee has been told, to be expected. She particularly likes growing up with Azula and Mai, and walking very close to the walls that keep the bad things out, or maybe keep the people in if you listen to Azula.
Sometimes Ty Lee holds Azula's sun-soaked hand, just to feel the heat. She is the best firebender Ty Lee has ever met and so she always is hot. Sweat is the norm on Ember Island, and neither girl minds it. Azula has yet to say anything of a romantic nature to Ty Lee, but Ty Lee thinks she would be content just being friends with her, and that's it.
They are without Mai, one day, together, by the ocean. This beach is rocky with sharp obsidian, and therefore, usually deserted. It is cold today and Ty Lee gives Azula her warm jacket when Azula demands it of her. Ty Lee pretends it is a romantic gesture, but she is too afraid to tell Azula she loves her.
"You act like a princess," Ty Lee remarks as Azula struggles to find a comfortable position by the placid water.
Azula purses her lips, averting her eyes. Ty Lee has no idea what she said wrong, but she quickly stammers out, "I mean it in a good way. I like princesses. I love them, actually."
But Azula still says nothing for a thousand years. She plays with blue fire on her fingertips. It dances and Ty Lee gawks at the beauty.
"I want to be a real princess," Azula at last says, her words tentative, like a child touching their toe to the water to see if it is too cold to swim in. "I want to go to the Mainland—Caldera—and sit on the throne there."
Ty Lee scratches her ear, digging out a bit of sand. "I don't think I can take you to Caldera. But I can make you a pretty nice throne right here."
"Oh, really?" Azula asks, not believing Ty Lee for a second.
"Yeah." Ty Lee grins. "Let's go find some fire gummies or fire flakes or something."
She gently takes Azula by the hand, and spends the entire afternoon thinking about that beach that they searched for all summer.
[X]
Ty Lee labors for weeks whenever she has free time and not occupied by school. She builds a throne from obsidian, overlooking the ocean. It befits the Princess of the Sun, for the Princess of the Kingdom by the Sea.
At last, she completes the project, and when she meets Azula at their boathouse, she whispers that she has something to show her. They walk to the beach together, and Ty Lee gives a grand gesture to introduce the throne.
"I appreciate the effort," says Azula, reverting to that cold girl who fears friendship. "It's not that bad."
"You don't like it." That wounds Ty Lee to the core, like someone stabbed her in the gut. When Azula sees the pain in her friend's eyes, she hesitates.
"I do." And to prove her point, Azula walks to the throne and sits on it, looking out at the ocean with glazed eyes.
"It's our Kingdom," Ty Lee insists, sitting beside the throne, yet beneath it. "Our Kingdom by the Sea. Will you rule it, Azula?"
Azula pauses. "Will you rule it, Princess Azula? I think you meant that."
Ty Lee coyly giggles but Azula's face remains dead serious. Ty Lee nods. "Will you rule our Kingdom by the Sea, Princess Azula?"
"I am honored to accept the crown," Azula purrs as she reclines on the throne and gazes at the fluffy clouds in the languid sky above the calm waves.
"I have a crown!" Ty Lee suddenly recalls, reaching around for the wooden box where she kept her stolen building supplies. She returns with a black crown that matches the throne, certainly fit for the truly wicked and evil queen that Ty Lee is certain Azula would be.
Ty Lee places it on Azula's head.
They stare at each other for a moment, and then Ty Lee places a kiss on Azula's rosy lips.
[X]
Weeks later, Azula and Ty Lee lie in bed together at a sleepover. Ty Lee has had many of these nights, but this one feels quite different. They are twelve years old and in such a strange, gangly phase of their lives. But Azula is still Azula and Ty Lee is still Ty Lee and they love with a love that is more than love in their Kingdom by the Sea.
"Why are you staring?" Azula accuses as she slips out of her clothes.
"I-I-I didn't, I didn't mean to…" Ty Lee's umber cheeks heat up.
Azula blinks her grey eyes and studies her best friend for a moment. "Do you think I'm sexy?"
Ty Lee is not sure if she should say no or yes. The truth is yes, but the polite answer is certainly no.
"I think you're the sun," Ty Lee says softly and Azula accepts that answer.
Slowly, Azula crawls onto the bed, the loaned pajamas neglected. She advances on her secret girlfriend and Ty Lee is agape and wordless. Ty Lee always did talk too much, but she now has nothing to say.
"You should touch me," Azula says in that confident purr. She grabs her shiny raven hair in one hand, tossing it over her back. It sticks together with sand and water, probably never to be smooth, which is why Ty Lee hides her springy brown hair in a taut braid.
"Where?" Ty Lee asks, feeling like a fool.
"Wherever you want." Ty Lee has no answer, and Azula slowly inhales.
Oh yes, Ty Lee cannot help but have her eyes fall on the heave of Azula's chest. No, no, no, don't get caught staring, rushes through her mind.
"You can touch those, if you want."
Ty Lee must admit that she wants to. Milky white breasts with stark red nipples that look nothing like the ones Ty Lee sees on herself in the mirror. It slowly builds up to the awkward fumbling, as Ty Lee's hands hesitantly brush against every part of Azula's skin, until Azula takes her by the palms and sets them on her breasts.
They exchange awkward kisses and Azula's hands pushing up Ty Lee's shirt are no less pathetic and inexperienced.
They do not have sex or anything close to it; they are far too young. But they feel just as guilty as if they had.
When Ty Lee lies down beside Azula, she feels as if she has been touched and set ablaze by dazzling sunbeams.
[X]
On a hot summer night, at age thirteen, Azula and Ty Lee linger on their beach again, Azula seated on her throne, playing with cerulean fire on her fingertips, and Ty Lee on her lap. Ty Lee stares at Azula, and Azula certainly notices, but she pretends to be distracted and watching the indigo night sky.
Ty Lee studies Azula's brilliant fire. It is not the color of the sea, nor the sky. It is something in between. Something where the sky meets the ocean or where soul meets body. Those thoughts of the blue flames bring a small smile to Ty Lee's lips.
"I used to think that the sun just always shined on you," Ty Lee says as she takes Azula's fingers into hers and plays with them gently. Ty Lee tries to ignore the burning desire in her core from being so tightly pressed against Azula's hips. "But I've started to realize that the sun shines only for you."
Azula derisively snorts and rolls her eyes. "You're horrible. Where did you even learn that?"
"I thought it up myself," Ty Lee says in earnest.
"Well, that explains why it's so stupid, doesn't it?" Azula smirks knowingly. Ty Lee could never identify what that small smile meant, but she now knew. It meant Azula knows a lot of things, and she would never tell them to anyone.
But Ty Lee is determined to find out. And she knows she has all of the time in the world.
Or at least, she thought that she had all of the time in the world.
[X]
"Will you marry me?" Ty Lee asks quietly as they stare up at the sky. She thinks Azula may be bored by the infinite starlight.
"I will marry you, when we follow that star across the sea," says Azula, pointing. Ty Lee cranes her neck and wriggles her body and tries to figure out what Azula means.
"Where does it go?" whispers Ty Lee, leaning closer to her girlfriend. Azula radiates warmth, just like the sun, and in the cold night, it feels nice against Ty Lee's skin.
"To Caldera," Azula says softly. "And we will conquer it, and rule as wicked and terrible empresses. I will marry you in a dress soaked red with the blood of the traitors there."
Ty Lee hesitates, finding it a bit gruesome. She always just imagined myriad pink roses and pretty music.
"That sounds perfect," Ty Lee says, because, honestly, any way she would marry Azula would be utter perfection.
[X]
Ty Lee is fourteen years old when she loses Azula forever.
One day, Azula is there. The next, she is gone.
The sky thunders like a storm, but there is not a cloud in sight. Footsteps slam against pavement and Ty Lee is shoved into the basement, her grandparents pleading for her not to move.
When Ty Lee at last rises from her hiding place, her world is in ashes. The walls have crumbled, the walls that caged her on this beautiful island. Corpses lie carelessly in the streets and Ty Lee tries not to look at them for too long.
"What's happening?" she shrieks, but no one hears her. She might as well be screaming to the seagulls above.
She looks around, studying everything she sees. Ty Lee has been in school long enough to know about the Fire Nation, but she thought they were allies. Sozin Island is in Fire Nation territory, or so she was taught. But this is an Fire Nation attack.
Ty Lee runs to Azula as soon as she possibly can. She runs, knowing that the attack is by Fire Nation soldiers, and, thinking that they might have taken prisoners. Or they might not have, which is an even more frightening thought.
On her way to the derelict vacation home, Ty Lee stops and sees something strewn on the ground that makes her vomit. Mai. Mai lies dead and mangled, mutilated and lifeless in the gutter. Ty Lee screams and screams and vomits again, this time only bile and foam rising from her insides.
It instills a panic in her, she races to the derelict home where Azula lived.
She screams from her girlfriend until her throat bleeds and her voice fades away.
[X]
The next day, Ty Lee attends Mai's funeral. Her entire family was wiped out by the Fire Nation and, while Ty Lee knows she should feel grief, she feels only anger. Rage. Pure rage that she wants to take out on those monsters.
She clenches her fist throughout the entire service.
[X]
One week after the raid, Ty Lee finds the beach again. She picks up the black crown of obsidian and tosses it as hard as she can into the ocean, before crumbling into a ball. Her tears could flood the Kingdom by the Sea.
And for the two weeks after the raid, the sky is grey. Ty Lee feels foolish, but she keeps thinking it is because Azula is gone.
Because Ty Lee was right.
The sun did shine only for Azula.
CHAPTER TWO
Azula does not have ample time to react when Fire Nation soldiers raid her home, but she does put up a fight when they take her. She never was much for listening to her Uncle Iroh, who told her to go with her brother. She struggles, and struggles, and fights and scratches the faces of the men in shimmering, strong armor. Then she lets free her fire, like Iroh told her never to do. The flames of blue lick the cerulean skies as she kills four men. But she is small, other firebenders resist her with defensive moves Azula never learned, and her escape is futile.
When she looks around desperately for Zuko and her Uncle Iroh, all she sees are soldiers in armor and a sea of terrified people she cannot distinguish from each other. One soldier throws her over his shoulder and she hates her scrawny thirteen-year-old, sunburned, useless body as he carries her more easily than a sack of flour through the thick veil of smoke that once was a village.
They take her to the pier.
Once they board a ship, they lock her in a closet. She does not get a good glimpse at the vessel, but she knows it is nothing like the fishing boats she has seen over the years.
Azula tries to think of a way to escape, but she feels the ship lurch and begin to move, and knows even she would struggle to escape with enough time to swim back to her island. All she does is try to melt steel, until she grows tired and quits, leaving a smoking splotch on the wall.
Once she does not focus on escape, she begins to think about what became of the island she knew as a home. She does not know who else was taken, or if anyone was abducted like her. Maybe they slaughtered everyone. From what she knows of the Fire Nation, she thinks that might be exactly what they would do. She tries not to think about that conclusion.
Azula hates the soldiers and hates her Uncle. Uncle Iroh always knew things, just like all of the adults on Ember Island, and Iroh only shared enough secrets to infuriate Azula. Uncle Iroh told her that the Civil War never ended and that Ember Island is one of the few sanctuaries in a world devoured by conflict. Iroh told her that she was not born yet when Iroh helped her mother and brother escape during the Fall of Caldera. Iroh told her that they were royalty once, and that Zuko would have ruled the Fire Nation one day; she thought she would have been better suited for that job, but it did not matter when the traitors prevented it. Iroh told her that she had nothing to worry about and therefore did not ask about such old, dead, unhappy, far off things.
Iroh was wrong of course.
She should have been very worried.
[X]
The door to Azula's tiny prison opens after what feels like eternity to a young girl, but probably was only an hour or two. She wipes away the shameful tears and refuses to let her captors see her weakness. At the gesture of the soldier freeing her, she stands up. Azula locks eyes with him and he looks away first.
"Follow," orders the man as he clasps handcuffs onto her.
"I am not an animal. Speak in full sentences," Azula says sharply before realizing he does not understand her. Is the Fire Nation as isolated as Ember Island? She does not know that they had another language there a long time ago, one that she now regrets not paying more attention to learning from Uncle Iroh.
The people of the Fire Nation speak something old and archaic.
Azula only speaks Common Tongue, with a few shreds of her native language. She tries to think of something clever, something proper in his language, but she comes up short. All she can think of is the word for sun and the word for moon. Sun and moon. How useful.
And he guides her, like the animal she asked not to be treated as, towards the inside of the ship. It is only now that fear truly sets in. After a painful walk, the soldier forces her into a war room filled with maps. They all look utterly different from the ones she studied in old books with crumbling, flaking spines. Many men stand inside and Azula takes a slow breath, her eyes flickering around to find any weakness, any point of escape.
The soldier guiding her speaks to the men in English and Azula can only pick out four words: child, princess, brother, shoes.
Shoes? Azula thinks it is a mistranslation on her part until she looks at her bare feet, and, for the first time in hours, she realizes she is not wearing any shoes, and her feet are blackened and coated with sand.
When the man in the center of the room speaks, it is not much too quickly for Azula to pick out, and with a very heavy accent that makes it even more difficult to decipher. She tries to read his lightly wrinkled face. He has impeccably groomed grey hair and sideburns, and a severe look in his eyes at all times.
He turns to her and asks a question that she does not understand. As she just stares at him, he waits expectantly.
Finally, he clears his throat, looks at her, and seems to realize the problem.
He speaks in the Common Tongue, "My name is Zhao. I command the Fire Nation Army and serve the Fire Lord. I am sorry you were treated so poorly. As soon as we reach the port, we will get you shoes and better clothes and for now you can remain in here instead of the closet where they so barbarically locked you."
"Why did you take me?" Azula asks sharply, meeting his bright green eyes with her pale greyish blue ones. It lasts longer than her previous encounter, but he looks away first like everyone else does.
"Why do you think we took you?" he coolly asks.
Azula wants to snarl that she knows why they would take her, but not why they would take anyone after so many years of alleged peace. But she thinks better of it; the less they think she knows, the safer she will be. She already looks dumb enough with her complete inability to understand her native language, so perhaps that will help.
"You took everyone, I guess. Or maybe killed them. I don't know why," Azula says, carefully minding her inflection. She is so glad she considers lying to be a fun hobby.
"We did not take everyone, and only those who resisted were killed. Ember Island needed to be claimed by the new regime, and the occupation will be kind," Zhao says.
"I don't care what you do to them. Why should I care if your occupation is kind or not?" Azula demands. He laughs and murmurs something in English to the man beside him, who then chuckles. She wants to scream. "Where are my brother and Uncle?"
Zhao says, "That is privileged information."
"Then privilege me," demands Azula, eyes smoldering.
A smirk flickers on his lips for a split-second, as if she has told a joke. "We don't know yet. I doubt the invasion has finished by now, and we will not have a full list of those captured on every ship until our fleet checks in."
"Who else is on this ship then?"
"Just you. If you didn't notice from your accommodations, this is not a ship meant for taking prisoners or housing many soldiers. You see, we didn't know about you when we launched the attack. No one did. We were on orders to collect your brother and your Uncle, and we found you with them."
Azula now hates herself for revealing that she was related to Zuko and Iroh. She could have pretended otherwise.
"Who gave those orders?"
"The Fire Lord."
"Is there even one of those?"
"As of two weeks ago, yes. Hence, why we are reclaiming any territories we lost track of during the Civil War."
Azula does not move. Does not give them a tell. But inside, she screams.
"I'm thirsty," Azula decides to say.
She doubts the Fire Lord has anything pleasant in mind for someone else with a claim to his newly won throne.
[X]
That night, Azula has a room of her own.
She falls asleep quickly but wakes in the night drenched in cold sweat. It takes her a moment to register where she is and what has happened. Her world has been ripped out from under her.
"Two lovers / forbidden from one another / a war divides their people / and a mountain divides them apart / two lovers / forbidden from one another / a war divides their people / and a mountain divides them apart," and then she repeats.
She sings to herself very quietly, the words muffled by her pillow.
And she hates how much she already misses Ty Lee. That girl she was really in love with, but now she will never be able to tell her. Azula thought the idea of telling Ty Lee she liked her was stupid, but now… now she wishes she had.
"Two lovers / forbidden from one another / a war divides their people / and a mountain divides them apart," and then she repeats.
And repeats. And repeats. And repeats.
[X]
The next evening, Azula sees Caldera for the first time.
As they reach the pier, Azula sees ships of unimaginable makes. She sees a city that no picture could ever do justice. It could have been hers. It could have all been hers.
Once they are brought to the ship, she changes into new clothes and slides on the new shoes in her closet. When she steps out, she begins to panic. But Azula pretends to be calm as they guide her back into the corridor.
"Hurry with her, will you?" orders Zhao, an alien urgency in his gruff voice. "The Fire Lord is here. He wants to see her before she enters the city."
Before she had a chance to escape in the city, Azula hears.
She walks with her host, Zhao, to the deck of the ship.
Everyone is bowing but her and she wonders if she should or not. Her host only bows halfway before taking her by the arm again and standing.
Azula can only stare at her feet for so long. She tries to understand the words the two men exchange but cannot make out a word with the accents and her lessons beyond rusty.
The Fire Lord asks her something that she does not understand and she just looks imploringly at Zhao.
"She does not speak English. They do not seem to teach it on Ember Island, your highness."
Azula rubs her chapped rosy lips together. It gives away her nerves.
The Fire Lord has dark hair and grey eyes; he looks much like Zuko. His pale skin shines in the sunlight. He wears a tailored suit and a katana tucked into his belt.
"What is your name?" he asks.
"Azula," she whispers, which makes him laugh. It is high and cold and does not bode well with her.
"That would have been your brother's name, if he were a girl."
"You know my family?" Pause. "Your highness. You know my family, your highness?"
He narrows his eyes. She does not like the scrutinized glare.
"I am your family. I am what is left of it after the Civil War, at least." He walks towards her and she remains steadfast despite her trembling fingers. "I have to say I was hoping to find your mother. You wouldn't happen to know where she and the rest of the people who were supposed to be captured ran off to, would you?"
"I don't know about my brother and Uncle Iroh, but my mother is dead. She died when I was four." Not long before Azula met Ty Lee.
Ty Lee. Ty Lee. Ty Lee. Azula has been trying her best not to think about her since last night.
"And you must be thirteen."
"Yes." Azula realizes it later than she should have.
He is her father.
After the attack in which Azula was taken prisoner, Ty Lee watches everything she ever knew burn to the ground and be reborn as something different. It quickly becomes apparent why, during the attack, many people connected to the Fire Nation were captured. Maybe they went by choice, given what happens after the raid.
It is an occupation. Ty Lee knows what that is, at least. She knows about the Occupied Cities after the Hundred Year War. Then the Civil War, which was fought between an uncle and nephew, both starving for power and willing to destroy their own country to obtain it. But she knows little more than that.
Azula knew.
Ty Lee should have listened to her more often.
The walls around their island paradise come tumbling down and are eventually recycled into different kinds of walls. While the ones Ty Lee grew up in the shadow of were beautiful and covered in murals and were meant to keep bad things out, these ones made it clear that they are keeping everyone in.
Like everybody else with half a brain, Ty Lee avoids soldiers whenever she can. Once upon a time, police patrolled the streets, but they were forgiving and usually would just return stray or mischievous children to their parents.
The first time Ty Lee sees a boy a little younger than her get in trouble for kicking a ball through a window, she cannot look away or run away fast enough.
She struggles to look at his marred face, inflicted by the knife of a soldier in glistening armor.
The new man in charge of the village is not the mayor with ruddy cheeks and a warm disposition, but an ice cold man by the name of Bayani. He was a war hero.
Ty Lee accepts her new life, because she cannot afford to protest it.
[X]
Shortly after the occupation begins, Ty Lee yelps in pain as a middle-aged woman tattoos a symbol onto her wrist. Numbers. She is Citizen Number 102013142. It is not as pretty of a name as Ty Lee, in her opinion. She wants to glare or scream or kick and punch and stomp her foot as her skin becomes puffy and red around the black numbers, but she stays brave like her grandmother made her promise to be.
If the Fire Nation had any organizational skills as leaders, they would not need to organize people by numbers. They would trust in their public and trust in their leaders.
But they claim it is for Royal Organization and no one says a word against them.
Ty Lee goes home after that long day of being categorized and runs to her grandmother's study. It always has been messy, covered with her artwork and ink paintings, and the journals in which she writes haiku poems. On one of the shelves that Ty Lee must kneel before to read, she finds a history book about the Fire Nation.
She wants to know if it has always been this way.
The book is propaganda; Ty Lee learns nothing.
[X]
"Two lovers / forbidden from one another / a war divides their people / and a mountain divides them apart," and then she repeats.
Ty Lee stopped singing to the fish years ago. She grew up, and instead would go to the boathouse. She forgot the words to most of the songs, and it felt natural to become older with Azula and Mai. But now that Ty Lee is alone, she has no one and nothing. And so, she sings to the fish again.
"Two lovers / forbidden from one another / a war divides their people / and a mountain divides them apart," and then she repeats.
As she sings, her teardrops fall into the ways and instantly disappear. They are so tiny compared to the vast ocean. It makes Ty Lee feel infinitesimally small.
"Two lovers / forbidden from another / a war divides their people / and a mountain divides them apart," and then she repeats.
"You sing beautifully," interrupts a voice that is not Azula's. Still female, still nearby. Ty Lee cocks her chin up to see who watches her. "I'm sorry," says the girl who looks her age or a little bit older, maybe fourteen or fifteen. "I probably shouldn't have been spying on you."
"It's fine. I sing for whoever is listening, and you were listening." Ty Lee smiles blithely and bats her eyelashes.
Ty Lee gazes at the new girl and sees a ragged, stiff ponytail of brown hair and remarkably warm blue eyes. Her skin is beige and smooth, and her lips shimmering and full. Ty Lee never has seen her around, therefore she assumes she must have been one of the refugees gradually pouring into the Ember Island Base of Command.
"I'm Suki," the girl says as she slides down the sand dune.
Ty Lee bites her lip and wants to scream at Suki not to do that, not to stand on Azula's sand dune, not to slide down it like Azula once did. But it is not Azula's sand dune anymore because she and Zuko and her Uncle Iroh disappeared.
"I'm Ty Lee." She beams at Suki.
"What are you up to?" Suki asks, gazing at Ty Lee with a bright, open expression.
Azula would have never looked at anyone like that.
"Singing to the fish." Ty Lee blushes; it makes her seem like a child and not someone who is at the cusp of womanhood.
But, "Sounds fun," says Suki. "Can I join you?"
"Yes," Ty Lee loudly says.
She watches Suki stand and walk across the beach. When the sun shines behind Suki, it looks like an eclipse; when Azula did, she became an ethereal being made of sunbeams.
Suki stands by the tidepools, the sun on her hair shines like anyone's; when Azula stood there, the sun became a crown. Suki is very sweet and Ty Lee likes her very much, but she is not fit to rule the Kingdom by the Sea.
On Ty Lee's sixteenth birthday, she ends up on a list of casualties.
During a humongous fight between rebels and the occupation forces—the most significant battle on Ember Island in history—an explosion takes Ty Lee down. Over the desks of military officials, her name and assigned number are marked as legally dead. As the soldiers retake the city and the rebels fail, Ty Lee lies dying in the dust, barely breathing and bloody. The burns, cuts and bruises on her body cause so much pain that she does not remember where she is. Her ears ring from the artillery and she sees double.
When her eyelids flutter open, she gazes up at golden eyes. Long, lovely raven hair falls from the pallid girl trying to revive her.
"You are not allowed to die," orders the stunning girl Ty Lee has thought about incessantly for years. Azula. "You are not allowed to die."
Ty Lee croaks under her breath, "I am not allowed to die."
The glimmering figure of her childhood true love kisses her swollen, bleeding lips and Ty Lee fades into darkness again.
She lives.
She lives for Azula, even if the Fire Nation believes her to be deceased.
The beginning of the end begins two years before Ty Lee's alleged death.
"Where are you from?" a fourteen-year-old Ty Lee asks Suki as they sit in Ty Lee's house. The decorated walls of her grandfather's office bore her but her new friend interests her.
"I was born on a different island. It used to be Kyoshi Island after the Avatar, but after the Fire Nation conquered it they just called the whole island Outpost Thirty-Two. Then, after Outpost Thirty-Two died out from a plague, my family moved to Seiji City on the other side of Ember Island. The occupation relocated us here."
Ty Lee licks her dry, salty lips and sits up straight. "What do you know about the Civil War?"
"As much as anybody does," Suki replies with a shrug. Ty Lee shakes her head, trying to make the words that no, she knows nothing about the Civil War except overheard whispers. "It ended a little while ago. Fire Lord Ozai won and took over."
"Let's go get something to eat," Ty Lee suggests and Suki smiles at her. As the rise and walk to the kitchen, Ty Lee inquires, "Why were you on the other side of that dune the other day?"
"I was checking it out," Suki cavalierly explains and Ty Lee clenches one angry fist. "It got raided and roped off by the Occupation Forces and I really… I kind of like going to dangerous places."
Ty Lee says nothing in response.
That is not some dangerous ruin, Ty Lee wants to scream, it was once the home of a real person. A real person that I loved. A real person that I still love.
"You know the person who lived in the house next door, don't you?"
"Was it that obvious?" Ty Lee's eyes flash in surprise.
Suki smiles faintly and shrugs. "You looked like you were hoping I was somebody else when I turned around. I stole something while I was there and… you're kind of only nice person I've met here so far. Do you want to take it back?"
"What did you steal?" Ty Lee asks softly and Suki reaches deep into the pocket of her ill-fitting red clothes. She pulls out a pair of golden earrings; Mai's golden earrings. Ty Lee nearly vomits. "Yeah. We should take that back. Or maybe… I have a better idea. Come help."
This is probably not protocol for things to do with a new friend, but Ty Lee has always been odd and has always made friends with odd people. She builds a small raft with loose wood from her grandfather's study and then gives it a small sail.
Ty Lee and Suki talk and laugh until the sun goes down, as Ty Lee builds the raft and Suki tinkers with a few of Ty Lee's grandfather's old projects. That night, they go out onto the beach, even though the hour is past the newly imposed curfew.
And Ty Lee walks to the water, squinting for the star that Azula showed her. All of them look the same. Ty Lee is unsure how she can see people in so many different colors but the sky just looks like… sky.
"This is a weird question," Ty Lee says, still feeling like some creep who tries to dress up his new girlfriend in his ex-girlfriend's clothes. "But do you know anything about the stars?"
"Oh, oh yeah. I actually know a lot about them. My uncle – he's pretty much raised me – he's a fisherman," Suki says eagerly.
"What star points the way to Caldera?" Ty Lee keeps squinting upwards in confusion.
"Mmmm, I think that one." Suki points and Ty Lee shrugs, heading over to position herself on the beach. The tide moves gently in the right direction and Ty Lee smiles faintly. It presents itself to her as a sign.
"Alright." Ty Lee takes the raft and tests to see if it floats. It does; Ty Lee did pass her sailing project at school. She sets the earrings onto the raft, carefully wrapping them so they will not blow away or sink.
And she casts it off, towards Caldera.
Because please let Azula be there.
It feels… good.
"Let's go find some food," Ty Lee says to Suki, now smiling at her.
Her heart feels a bit freer as the golden earrings float out of sight.
[X]
It takes a good deal of time before Ty Lee takes Suki to the boathouse. They both reached the age of fifteen not long ago. The heat of the summer day coats both girls in sticky sweat, and Suki asks if they can take shelter there after swimming for hours. Ty Lee wanted desperately to refuse, because it is her and Azula's and not even Mai went in there, but she does agree.
Ember Island has been occupied by the Fire Nation for two months now, and Ty Lee knows she must move on and change. The world shifted, and she cannot remain stagnant.
Suki likes to climb things, and she clambers around the boathouse. Ty Lee gazes at the lapping water and talks about everything and nothing. Suki does not bore her, thankfully. She happens to be one of the most interesting people Ty Lee has ever met.
That makes the days a bit better.
[X]
School starts again in autumn. Ty Lee scowls at the mirror as she examines her hair. She changes it from two braids to one, shifting it away from how it looked when she fell for Azula. She then examines the lip paint Suki gave her. She does not know why she cares about looking good for the Occupation Force, but for some reason she wears her prettiest yellow sundress. She cannot skip school like she did in the past; the new mayor made it clear that they would suffer 'severe consequences' if they did not attend daily.
And Ty Lee has had enough severe consequences to last a lifetime.
When she arrives at the school, she stares for a few moments at the long line outside. Heavily armed guards search the students one by one. Now that is a new feature. Ty Lee shivers as she clutches her bag close to her chest and patiently and politely moves past the guards. They grab her arm and search her head to toe. They, of course, find nothing and one of them smiles at her kindly.
Ty Lee knows these soldiers are humans under the armor. They cannot truly be the monsters people call them secretly in the shroud of dark nights.
Then, the soldiers separate the students into two groups. Ty Lee notes that everyone on the other side is a new citizen relocated by the Fire Nation. The other group has lived on Ember Island for their entire lives.
She sees the new teachers, prim and proper women wearing very traditional clothes, the kind that Ty Lee has only seen in the beautiful paintings her grandmother likes to hang in the living room to remind her of her home on the Fire Nation Mainland.
Ty Lee waves to Suki before the teachers usher her to a classroom, in which everything looks different. Last year, the walls were covered in pretty paintings made by the students, and the desks were coated in the sand, and the floor was scuffed with mud. The bookshelves were loaded with colorful volumes. Seashells and decorations were everywhere.
Now the classroom appears impersonal and cold. Everything has been recolored crimson red and coal black—the colors of the Fire Nation flag—and a nationalist painting of the imperial seal replaces a mural of a mermaid.
"Welcome," says a woman whose voice is not welcoming at all, "I am very privileged and thrilled to reeducate you all."
Ty Lee sits down, suppressing a grimace.
[X]
In spring, Ty Lee walks home from school, tired and bitter. She hates what the Fire Nation teaches; she learns nothing but propaganda now. And it makes her trudge home every single day. Suki catches up with her like she always does.
"We need to meet Jet," Suki breathlessly says.
"Who's Jet?" Ty Lee asks, furrowing her brow.
"He's a rebel. He's fighting against the occupation."
"The rebels haven't exactly done much for us. They've drawn some angry graffiti and failed a single bombing. They're not worth our time."
"They're gaining power. They have a new leader; an old woman named Iroh."
"Iroh?" Ty Lee immediately knows who it must be. Azula's Uncle took over the rebellion. "I—I guess I need to protect you from your bad decisions. Let's meet Jet."
Let's find out where they took Azula.
"Yeah." Suki smiles.
[X]
They meet up with a couple rebellion members in a dark, dank basement that smells of rotting fish. Ty Lee sees maps, papers laced with mildew. And the boy in the certain who looks surprisingly young to be leading the entire rebellion on Ember Island.
Jet wears a perpetual scowl, angry dark brown eyes and skin a shade darker than Ty Lee's, the hue of brass. His hair is sharply cut, matching his biting and curt attitude.
"I'm not asking for suicide bombings. Not yet," he says, glancing between Suki and Ty Lee.
"I'd prefer to not participate in suicide bombings," says Ty Lee, breaking out in a sweat.
"I won't ask you to do it unless you want to. But I need people. Iroh needs people. We need to show the Fire Nation that we aren't afraid of them."
"Why do you hate them so much?" Ty Lee asks.
Jet calmly explains, "I'm from Outpost Twelve, in the New Azulon Territory."
"I—I'm a bit sheltered. I don't know what that is," says Ty Lee, embarrassed.
"Well, let's just say the Fire Nation did some sick experiments on the people forced to live there. Then, when it got out of hand, they burned it to the ground and killed everybody inside. Killed my whole family. I barely got out alive." He rolls up his sleeves and shows them the sickening scars.
Ty Lee does not think she ever will be able to understand it. She does not get how an empire could stay in power and do such awful things. No wonder they suffered from so many wars.
"Now, choose your weapon," says Jet.
Ty Lee's lips part. "I, uh…"
Jet gestures to the wall. It takes Suki all of five seconds to select a sword. She spends more time observing each option, wondering how Jet got his hands on so many banned items. Finally, she grabs a solitary dagger and glances up.
"I can fight with my hands. My grandfather's been teaching me self-defense since I was little," says Ty Lee in earnest. He loved martial arts. Maybe he knew things would turn out this way.
Jet smirks. "Alright. Training starts right this instant."
He picks up his own weapon of choice: two shimmering broadswords.
[X]
It takes two months of working with the rebels for Ty Lee and Suki to be arrested. She sits in handcuffs in the Ember Island Jail with Suki beside her. Beads of sweat drip from her brow as she trembles in the anxious heat. Deeper in this bunker lies the detention center; people just disappear into there, never to be seen again.
She truly hopes that is not where she is headed.
The rebels used her and Suki as a distraction. Ty Lee would be bitter if the plan did not work.
When the guard walks in, Ty Lee holds her breath. She thinks she may faint.
But then he removes his helmet, revealing Jet.
"Let's hurry up, ladies. You two did a good job." He unlocks the cell and escorts Ty Lee and Suki outside. After helping them sneak out, they rush to the nearest beach and press their backs against the sand dunes, panting.
Jet cracks open the metal shackles that chafe against Ty Lee's wrists. He does Suki next. Then he smiles.
"You proved yourselves today. You're ready to go to the Cove."
"I—not permanently!" cries out Ty Lee, thinking of her grandparents.
Jet shakes his head. "The Fire Nation will be looking for you after the bombing today. It's safe there."
"No!" cries out Ty Lee. Suki nods somberly, accepting that fate, but Ty Lee does not want to leave her grandparents and the fish she sings to every afternoon. "You never said we would have to run away. You just said to help with the attack."
Jet sets two fingers under her chin and tilts her face upward. Tears blossom in her eyes and begin to drip down her face. Even his smoldering, passionate gaze cannot console her.
"You're going to be fine. The Rebellion is worth it."
Ty Lee does not know what to say as he kisses her salty, tear-stained cheek.
[X]
Years and years ago, the Fire Nation carved a military base into seaside cliffs. They abandoned it after the free people claimed Ember Island, and now the rebels made it their base of operations.
The dank corridors give Ty Lee chills, and she hates the strange noises at night and the constant taste of seawater in her mouth. She misses her soft bed when she sleeps on a mat atop the stone. She misses the manageable tidepools at the beach behind her house when she looks out at the terrifying, infinite ocean. She misses her grandparents most of all and cries about them every night. She weeps for them as much as she weeps for Azula. They say she will acclimate, but she does not want to acclimate. This was a bad choice. It all was a bad choice.
One morning, earlier than she likes to wake up, Jet taps her arm.
"Iroh wants to see you," he whispers.
Those words make Ty Lee wide awake. She never made contact with the woman in charge; very few receive that privilege.
Hastily, Ty Lee gets up from her damp mat and follows Jet through the winding halls of the Cove. They head through the guarded, barricaded doors that Ty Lee has snuck a few glances at from time to time. Inside waits a man whom Ty Lee instantly runs to, jumping into her arms before anyone can grab her. Iroh hugs her tightly.
Happy tears stream from Ty Lee's protuberant eyes as she clings tightly to an old friend.
"Where's Azula?" Ty Lee breathlessly asks as she breaks away.
Iroh's joy instantly becomes sadness. "She…" Iroh frowns. "I knew you would ask that. You still love her, don't you?"
"Yes," Ty Lee passionately declares, her heart thundering in her chest. "With all of my heart. She's the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I fall asleep."
Iroh softly sighs, averting his eyes.
Filled with shame, he explains, "During the invasion, she fought the soldiers and didn't listen to me. I lost her when I escaped with Zuko."
"What happened to him?" whispers Ty Lee, looking around the room.
Iroh's visible grief intensifies. "He left on a journey with the rebels. They went to fight in Caldera. I didn't put him in that squad but he left with them in secret. The team never reported back in. I don't know if they're dead or alive."
Ty Lee steps back and wipes her eyes.
"One day we'll find them," she states. "We love them and so we can find them again."
Iroh faintly smiles at her.
A year later, after 'dying' in an explosion, Ty Lee wakes up and screams from the abrupt pain. She feels like someone is tearing her apart limb from limb, and her burns are terrible, her body sliced up into ribbons.
She looks up, vision fuzzy, and sees Azula at first. Beautiful rose lips, black hair shimmering in the white sunlight, remarkable golden eyes glistening. Ty Lee's lips part from happy surprise.
Then she blinks several times and sees it is really Suki, luscious lips, a spiky brown ponytail, shimmering blue eyes.
Ty Lee closes her eyes and pretends to fall asleep.
She pretends the tears are from physical pain too.
CHAPTER THREE
In the Cove infirmary, Ty Lee wakes to see Iroh hovering over her. She smells the blood, rot, and pungent herbs that permeate the dank stone room. Even if sea salt speckles her face as it always does, from this dim hospital, it would be impossible to tell she resides on a tropical island. She fixates her blurry gaze on Iroh. The old man already appears apologetic and Ty Lee wonders why.
"How do you feel?" Iroh softly asks, gently touching Ty Lee's hand.
Ty Lee abruptly becomes aware of how cold and numb her limbs have become. When she last woke, they felt ablaze and agonized. Ty Lee blinks several times to at last clear her vision and sees every detail of Iroh's soft, empathetic expression.
"Dizzy, but not in pain," she says, trying to study her body but failing. "How are the wounds?"
Iroh manages to smile now.
"Well healed. We are fortunate enough to have two waterbenders adept at healing here and a stash of stolen medical supplies. We spared no expense with you. You—you did keep waking and fighting the healers but you calmed down as soon as the herbs started working. And… you murmured my niece's name more than once. She had a strong effect on you, didn't she?"
Ty Lee's eyes become glassy with tears. She thinks about earrings floating out to sea, towards the Fire Nation, to Caldera, and how they danced in her dreams as she slept.
"Of course she did. How could she not?" whispers Ty Lee, beginning to glow when she thinks about Azula. The memories light her up even if they make her sad. Then she remembers the girl who has not yet been stolen from her. "Where's Suki?"
Iroh averts his eyes, cheeks flushing red with shame. Ty Lee's heart skips a beat; this must be why she seemed to be hiding bad news.
"She ran off. She went to go hunt down the soldiers who did this to you." Iroh frowns again. "I guess you have a strong effect on people too."
Ty Lee doubts that. For her entire life, she has been ordinary. Always plain. She never has stood out in the crowd or had an impact on a single aspect of the world.
She sits up, straining against her weak body. It hurts like Hell but she could not possibly care less. "Where is she?"
"They captured her."
"I saw her! I saw her in this infirmary! She was right at my bed!" Ty Lee exclaims, tearing at her messy braid. Iroh remains utterly calm, which only serves to infuriate her further.
"She went to try to rescue her friends captured after the battle. I tried to stop her. She is now imprisoned and we…" Pause. "After all the deaths and the damage from the battle… we cannot afford to rescue everyone yet. That is why she went out on her own."
"Can't afford to rescue people?" Ty Lee's lips contort into an angry snarl as she pivots her head so fast she almost gives herself whiplash. "That should be our priority. We have to protect the people who help us."
Iroh rubs his wrinkled lips together as Ty Lee impatiently awaits a response. "We have wounded rebels here and civilians we rescued during the battle. They need to be cared for—and we certainly do not have enough people to mount another attack. Not yet. Sometimes you have to make hard choices you hate in order to live to fight another day."
Ty Lee growls like an angry animal. Iroh leans backwards as the injured girl flies towards her with rage in her russet eyes.
"I'm not waiting! I'm not letting anybody take the people I love away ever again!" Ty Lee screams, her every feature flaring. Iroh remains calm and tolerates the anger. "Tell me a way to save her. Let me at least do it alone. Please. At least let me save Suki."
Iroh sits down on the cot and helps a trembling Ty Lee lie back down. "I was getting to that part. I've been saving you for a vital mission. Under my orders, you and three other rebels were listed as dead after the battle. As far as the Fire Nation Empire knows, you all are wholly deceased. A man named Lee worked as a petty thief for years and I had him rescued from Ember Island during the battle. He and his waterbender girlfriend change tattoos of criminals, and now they are able to change tattoos of rebels. They salvaged the marks of four dead soldiers and have dried them in preparation. They will be welded to your skin with waterbending, on top of your old tattoos. It will help in the mission, which is why I requested his help."
"What mission?" Ty Lee whispers, her eyes widening. She never volunteered for one.
Iroh radiates discomfort as he cautiously explains, "You will go to the beating heart of the Fire Nation: Caldera. And after the time you will have spent as soldiers crawling up the ladder, you will find the opportunity to assassinate the emperor."
"But Suki…" murmurs Ty Lee, tears swelling in her eyes. She hates sadness. She does not do sadness, as she has said many times before. She always finds good in the bad and remains the most happy, carefree and optimistic person in the room. But now… now… she has faced too much loss to be happy. She feels only the alien sensation of anger in her.
Iroh explains softly, "If you get your number changed, you can liberate her from the detention center."
"I'm doing both," Ty Lee insists, invigorated by the idea. She forces herself to stand and clenches her tired fists. Her head spins, her knees buckle and she sits back down. "Where's Lee?"
Iroh stands across from Ty Lee. "I will send him up here as soon as the doctor tending to you gives permission."
"Fine," Ty Lee concedes, rubbing her temples and closing her eyes.
She never has felt a headache worse than this one.
[X]
As she writhes in her hospital bed—more from anxiety than pain—Ty Lee cannot stop thinking about what they might be doing to her best friend. It probably disturbs the patients and nurses but she cannot calm herself down.
In the dead of the night, she looks up and sees a girl about her age hovering there. She wears the strip of blue cloth around her arm that marks her as a healer.
"I'm Katara. You're looking much better than last I saw you," whispers this new nurse.
Katara has wide cobalt eyes that warmly study Ty Lee. Shadows dance on her Water Tribe features that stand out amongst the other inhabitants of the Cove. Most people here are Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom. Her smooth fawn skin and shiny brunette hair tied in weird little beaded loopies make her look like a beautiful and ethereal being.
"When did you last see me?" Ty Lee inquires, blinking several times.
"When they first brought you in. You were so burnt and cut up. It was awful." Katara starts checking Ty Lee's vitals. "You're going to go undercover with me, according to Iroh."
"You're on the mission?" Ty Lee squints at the young healer. "Who else is?"
"Me, you, Jet and…" Katara hesitates. "Well, Suki is supposed to go if we can get her out."
"I'm going to save her," Ty Lee vehemently says, vigorously shaking her head. "Tomorrow I'm changing my tattoo and I'm gonna get her out of lock-up."
Katara blinks several times and shifts her weight from foot to foot. "Is that why I got orders to speed up your release?"
"Probably." Ty Lee offers a bright smile, excited to forge a new friendship. She cannot belief she started her new friendship this way. "Anyway, if we're gonna go on that mission together, I bet we're gonna be really good friends. Don't you think?"
"I'd like that," Katara sweetly and earnestly says, taking Ty Lee's hand and helping her out of the cot. Her legs wobble again but slowly she regains balance. Katara starts moving her through the motions of an examination that Iroh ordered.
As Katara works, she asks Ty Lee, "Who do you have in Caldera?"
"What?" Ty Lee wonders if she knows about Azula. Suki barely does, so it would be odd for a stranger to know.
Katara warmly laughs. She reminds Ty Lee of a soft, bubbling hot spring in the humid jungle, perhaps on a tranquil indigo night.
"The only people crazy enough to join Iroh's team are the ones who have more to gain by going there than to lose," says Katara. "I bet we all have people we want to see again. To save."
"In the invasion a couple years ago," says Ty Lee, her voice trembling, "the girl I love got taken. I… promised myself I'd rescue her one day and I still plan on it."
Katara's glistening cobalt eyes seem to understand. Honestly, Ty Lee never witnessed someone reacting that way to words about Azula.
"I lost my mother." Katara touches her necklace—a blue carved stone attached to a bluer ribbon—and loses herself in memories for a few moments. "My mother was captured in my stead. When the Fire Nation came to conquer the Southern Water Tribe… I was the last waterbender. I was only eight or so. My mother said she was the last waterbender and they took her to Caldera in chains."
"I don't understand. Who wanted the waterbenders?" asks Ty Lee.
"You don't know?" Katara seems puzzled. Ty Lee blushes light pink. "In the war, the Fire Lord conquered the Southern Tribe by enslaving and killing our benders. They were our strength. The stories and songs about our warriors are amazing to hear. Hard to believe, by the time I heard them. You're looking at the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe."
Ty Lee does not know what to say. She just extends her hand. "I guess we'll be getting to know each other pretty good once training starts."
Katara shakes her hand.
"Now let's get you ready to go."
Ty Lee merrily smiles at her new friend and tries not to think about the sad story Katara told.
[X]
Ty Lee listens to Katara tell tales about learning waterbending while they do the remaining exercises to prove Ty Lee can get around on her own. She jumps up and hugs Katara tightly when she learns she is officially all better.
"Not many people would survive something like that. You must be lucky."
"I dunno if I believe in luck," remarks Ty Lee.
"You don't?"
"I think I believe in optimism. I believe that if I keep my head focused on the best way things can go, they'll always go the best possible way. Is that a thing you can believe in?"
"If you want to," says Katara, and with extra thought added, "I'd call it believing in hope, though. If you hold onto hope, you'll have a happy ending."
Ty Lee grins. "If you hold onto hope, you'll have a happy ending. I like that!"
Katara smiles back. Ty Lee studies her new friend's lips when they twist. They are warm, soft, welcoming something someone would call tender or cozy. Ty Lee's smile is more like fireworks on a pale but colorful night, or light pouring vivaciously through stained glass windows.
They fall into a comfortable silence as they walk down the hallways and to the temporary shelter set up for civilians rescued after the large battles between rebels and the Fire Nation. The smell is worse here than that of the infirmary and every single person looks destitute beneath drab canvas tents, bodies resting against the cold, slick, porous rock floor. Surely, Iroh and his friends could do better than this.
Katara turns to Ty Lee. "Lee does his work down here. I thought we might as well get our tattoos out of the way and see where we are at your plan to save Suki."
"P-plan? I don't have a plan. I'm totally clueless about Suki and all of that. I've—I've never had a plan in my whole life." Ty Lee's eyes are as wide as the full moon.
"I kinda figured from looking at you." Katara offers that warm smile again. "But me and you and Jet are going to work something out. We agreed to this mission, and we agreed to bring Suki with us. I also don't think you'll cooperate if we don't save her, will you?"
"I won't."
"Okay, then. To the tattoo man we go." Katara smiles and tilts her head for Ty Lee to follow.
They duck and weave through the rows, Ty Lee following Katara closely. She tries not to look too much at the heartbroken and wounded people.
"What was she like?" asks Katara and Ty Lee blinks, confused. "The girl you're going to look for in Caldera."
"Azula," murmurs Ty Lee, her name a soft sigh. "Her name was Azula. I think about her every night." Pause. "Do you ever have those dreams where there's someone with you and they get so close, right about to kiss you, and then you wake up cold and alone?"
Katara shakes her head. "I don't think I've ever really felt romantic love. Never had much opportunity or many hot boys who deserved it."
Ty Lee giggles. Katara flashes a smile. They come to a stop when Katara grabs Ty Lee's arm in front of the tattoo-forger's tent.
"We're here," confidently says the waterbender.
Ty Lee glances inside the makeshift tent propped up on particularly sturdy driftwood. Inside, three teenagers sit, sipping from tin cups and laughing about something.
"Hi," says Ty Lee, raising her hand in a small wave. "I'm Ty Lee. Me and Katara are here to get our tattoos changed."
The boy in between two girls glances up. "Iroh said you'd be coming by in a few days. Is there a reason you're early?"
"My friend—she got arrested. I gotta save her," says Ty Lee, and Katara gives her a strange look. She makes a mental note to ask about it.
"Zise," says the boy, turning to the two Water Tribe girls, "prep two sleeping mats. Zirah, can you get some water ready and warmed up? I'll start the process." He turns to Ty Lee and Katara. "Please, have a seat. Have a drink if you want. It'll probably help with the pain."
Ty Lee does not like the sound of pain. He seems vaguely cheery for someone about to perform a revolutionary procedure on two rebels. Ty Lee sits down beside Katara and picks up one of the cups. The girl called Zise rises from the sleeping mats she laid out and pours two cups of green liquid. Ty Lee takes a sip and grimaces; that burns unpleasantly.
But not nearly as unpleasantly as what happens next.
The boy reaches out for Ty Lee's arm and she does so. He looks at the characters that mark Ty Lee as who she is: a dead person. He sets a dried, fleshy imitation of skin close to her tone down on her and she keeps smiling. She takes another sip as he furrows his brow and adjusts it again.
"Okay, deep breath," says the boy and Ty Lee's eyebrows shoot up, because he just lit up his hand with fire. Katara is the one who screams when he melts the new tattoo onto Ty Lee's arm. It hurts worse than anything else Ty Lee has felt, but she is too stunned and agonized to make a sound.
"I changed my mind!" Katara exclaims, eyes wide.
"K-Katara, no," Ty Lee murmurs when he removes his hand and Zirah rushes to Ty Lee's side with the warm water. She begins healing the burn and smoothing out the look of the tattoo. It blends into Ty Lee's skin flawlessly, to her amazement. "You believe in this, remember? You believe in it a lot."
Katara nods and extends her arm to the boy. She yelps when he calmly melts a much darker swath of skin onto her. Then she screams, then she quiets down when Zirah leaves Ty Lee and mends the markings on Katara.
Ty Lee stares blankly at the tent wall while Zise leads her to a bed mat.
"Sit down for a bit. You'll feel better soon," she says and Ty Lee just expressionlessly nods.
Katara lies down beside her, squirming slightly.
[X]
The girls stay with Zise, Zirah and the boy they learn is named Lee. They offer portions of what little food they have and then share their space at night.
In the morning, Ty Lee will go into town and begin her plan to save Suki with Katara.
"So," says Katara after dinner as they sit at the small, weak campfire, "you're in love with this Azula girl, but you're also obviously in love with Suki. It seems like you'd follow her anywhere."
"Yeah. I care about the people I love," says Ty Lee, wringing her hands. "I hate that Suki sacrificed herself for me. I'm not worth it."
Katara frowns. "Why don't you think you're worth it?"
"I'm just not. I'm just a random person who..." Ty Lee shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe I'm good at fighting and maybe I try really hard, but I'm nothing special. Suki is something special. Azula is something special. And... when I'm with them, that's the only time I feel special too."
Katara nods. "I get it. I've never felt that, but I get it."
"I only joined the rebellion because of Suki. She was really dead set on it and I wasn't gonna let her do it alone," admits Ty Lee, beginning to rub her arm before the pain deters her. "I wasn't going to lose her like I lost Azula."
"You didn't join because you believe in it? Don't you hate the Fire Nation? Don't you hate what they do to people?" Katara's eyes smolder like boiling water. Ty Lee gazes at them for a moment, feeling ashamed.
"I don't know how I feel about the Fire Nation. I guess I hate them, but I really don't hate much. I care about what I love... and I don't really have a good reason to believe in the rebellion," Ty Lee says, turning up a palm. Katara, who has only been kind and sweet and friendly, suddenly looks angry.
"The flag. Don't you see that red and black flag and feel rage?" Katara asks, lip twisted into a passionate snarl. Ty Lee wants to throw up. She might have just destroyed a beautiful blossoming friendship.
"It's not a problem if you don't look up."
Silence.
Katara goes and lies down on her bed mat without another word.
Ty Lee bites back tears.
Why is she so stupid?
[X]
It grows late, very late, until the refugee camp becomes eerily silent. Zise snores. Ty Lee stares at the ceiling and slowly forgets about the pain of the tattoo cover-up as she lies awake.
The memory of Azula emerges from the night around her and she feels warm. Even with the cold sea wind beating against her raw skin, she might as well lie beside a hearth as she remembers the girl for whom she does this all.
Ty Lee closes her eyes and everything burns in blue.
She does not remember any of the bad things. She does not remember how cruelly Azula treated her most of the time.
Ty Lee can only remember the kisses raw and overwhelmed with young love, first love. She can only remember giving Azula everything she had in her and then offered even more. Azula took it and wrapped those promises and strengths and hopes for their future around herself and wore it like glimmering armor.
She remembers morning tea after sleepovers and the songs they sang to the fish. Ty Lee remembers in vivid detail the exact day Azula stopped halfheartedly lip synching and began to truly sing along.
The girl was like a princess, like the princess of the sun.
Ty Lee remembers their silly summer exploits, meeting eyes in class and trying not to giggle too loud and get in trouble.
She does not remember Azula shoving her into walls, does not remember those toxic words about eyes too-big or elbows too crooked or imperfect teeth. All she remembers is the girl of her dreams, the girl for whom the sun shone.
As she lay awake, she wished she could feel Azula's hot hands in her messy hair, her sandy mouth crushing down on Ty Lee's chapped lips. The weight of those golden, tired eyes on hers. They were always bloodshot in a weirdly flattering way. Azula's soul making love to hers in the boathouse where no one would ever find them.
Ty Lee wanted nothing more than to feel her.
She wanted to feel Azula loving her.
She wishes that Azula can feel the same thing right now.
Maybe they both are lying awake.
Maybe neither can sleep because they think endlessly about each other.
Ty Lee will at least pretend that, if she must.
But she thinks it is true.
She knows it is true.
Azula cannot have forgotten her, not when Ty Lee thinks about her daily.
Ty Lee closes her eyes.
And everything again burns in blue.
A/N: The next chapter will be shorter (a normal length of 4k - 5k words). It also will be coming very soon. Definitely by the first week of December or earlier. I regained my love for this story and I have already started writing the chapter. I'm almost halfway done with it but I'm also doing NaNoWriMo and stuff so I'm dividing my time between projects. Thank you for bearing with me if you read this story before, and thank you for reading if this is your first time. I'm eager to get back into fanfiction and to start again with this revised beginning. Thank you again and I hope you're enjoying the show.