Ty Lee doesn't know if there's a word for her new favorite color.
It's a really specific shade. Dark, close to purple but closer to blue. Not quite the hue of Azula's blazing fire, not quite the color of the nighttime sky. Ty Lee could understand loving either one of those two things.
But she loved pink. Pink was her favorite color since before she could remember. Even when she changed so greatly over the years, that never wavered.
Ty Lee has been babbling about her change in favorite color during her sleepover with her girlfriend. They sit in Azula's bedroom, basking in the light of the moon. She keeps trying to figure out when it changed, or why it changed, and she comes up short.
At last, Ty Lee blurts out exasperatedly, "I'm, like, loyal. Loyalty is my best quality."
Azula stares blankly at her. "Loyalty. Is. Your. Best. Quality?"
"Yeah!" protests Ty Lee before she realizes who she is talking to. "Oh. I…"
Azula shrugs. "Maybe you could just come up with a new best quality. If you can have a favorite color other than pink, surely you can find something else silly to love about yourself."
Ty Lee leaps down from the bed and sits across from her girlfriend.
"Okay…" She taps her fingertip on her lips. Azula does not even bother hiding the fact that she watches it. "What do you like best about me?"
"What do I like best about you?" Azula inquires, cocking an eyebrow. She thinks for a few seconds before changing the subject. "Let's discuss the favorite color change. I find it more interesting."
"Okay." Ty Lee smiles. "Okay, so, does it even have a name? What color is it?"
"Since I cannot read your mind, perhaps you could mix it in some paints?" Azula rises and gathers the proper materials from her desk beneath the window. She sets it up while Ty Lee waits with bated breath.
Ty Lee starts mixing, focused intently. Azula has never seen her so fixated on a task. It is somewhat attractive, to tell the truth.
She finishes and Azula holds up the finished product to the moonlight.
"Indigo," says Azula. "Your favorite color is indigo."
"But why?" Ty Lee asks, sighing softly and lying down on her back. She picks at the paint on her fingers while Azula sets the parchment down.
"I have no idea. What do you like about it?" asks Azula so regally that Ty Lee thinks no one would have the willpower to evade replying.
"I don't know what I like about it. I just like it better than pink." Ty Lee pouts. "I guess it's like you don't know why you like me."
"Hm." Azula gives no other response before she sits down at the foot of her bed. "This topic bores me. Let's move on."
Ty Lee still examines the indigo paint on her hands.
Until Azula takes it, staining herself blue, and pulls Ty Lee up onto the bed.
Their lips meet.
Ty Lee looks at the color on Azula's skin and realizes something in secret.
It is the color pink makes when it crashes into dark, deep, forlorn shades of blue.
It is the color of this love.
Ty Lee smiles into the kiss and decides she will never reveal that revelation.
