AN: I'm pretty excited to share this. It's Tyzula, and is rated M for lemons in later chapters. It's a Modern-ish AU. The Fire Nation and the war all intact and in the AvatarVerse but it has a more modern aesthetic, with technology and stuff.
To say that Princess Azula of the Fire Nation is repressed would be a massive understatement.
To say that Princess Azula of the Fire Nation is overladen with expectations and a future is even more of an understatement.
But today, she is allowed to breathe, if it can be called that. Her father allows her to spend the morning doing whatever she wants, which is actually limited to a list of about three activities, and then she can go back to firebending and studying, despite the fact that it is summer at last and even Mai is having more fun than her. Mai.
She is, as always, surrounded by guards, but they fear her enough to remain a few steps behind her as she wanders through the museum. Most people would think that her father is forcing her to go, but Azula likes museums.
She likes the past. But she is supposed to be fixated on the future, as her father insists. He tells her about how she needs to at all times be focused on the future of the Fire Nation and its growing empire, and that history was a waste of time.
The sun is blinding, beyond blinding, and swelteringly hot. Enough to make ripples of heat waves in the air on the streets. But the museum is cool and comfortable inside, enough that Azula has put back on her crimson school cardigan.
Azula's bliss, however, is interrupted by musical notes. This place tends to be deserted at this hour, and, slowly, Azula creeps into the room. She finds a girl at the piano, a girl who has climbed over the red ropes tying it off, a girl neglecting the rules that are implemented with brutal force even in museums or parks.
Admittedly, however, the music she is playing is very beautiful. The melody is familiar, but Azula does not care for music. Her mother used to ask her to sing, to show off her beautiful voice, and Azula stopped as soon as the woman was gone.
The girl is dressed in light pink, and her hair is in a braid that falls down her back. She certainly is not dressed like the type of person who frequents museums, or is able to play piano like that.
Azula realizes she is staring when the music comes to a halt.
"Hi," brightly says the stranger and Azula realizes she is not prepared for this. "I thought I was alone."
"I thought the same," Azula says coldly, and when she glances over her shoulder and sees the guards trailing her, she takes several steps forward. "What song was that?"
"Summer, I think, or maybe Spring. Hmmm. I actually don't remember where I learned it or what it's called." The girl shrugs contentedly and Azula furrows her brow.
She is evidently not of the normal type.
"It was more than adequate," Azula says as the men in prim suits advance further on her.
The girl snorts with a very shrill set of giggles. "You talk funny! I like it."
Azula has no response to that. There is nothing in her speaking textbooks to prepare her for this.
But, thankfully, the girl keeps talking. "Do you sing? Or play anything?"
"No," Azula says, half-honestly.
"Oh, I didn't even, oh, wow I feel dumb. I'm Ty Lee. Nice to meet you." The keys make a jumbled sound as she pushes herself to her feet with her palm against them. "You must go to the Ladies Academy?"
"I…" Azula has the abrupt realization that this very odd person has no idea who she is.
And that is… enthralling. Or enticing. Either one works.
"I'm starting there after this break."
"Really?" Azula says, giving the worst glare of her ancestors at the guard who looks most likely to interrupt her. "Why so late?"
"I just moved here from the colonies," Ty Lee says brightly, as if that is not taboo and shameful. Most people would hide that at all costs. "Where are you headed next?"
"In… the museum?" Azula asks and Ty Lee grins and nods. "I was going to go to the statues."
"Do you need any company?" Ty Lee inquires and Azula swallows.
Ty Lee does not know Azula is the heir to the throne. Azula likes this.
"I would enjoy your company."
"Do you always talk like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like.. old timey?" Ty Lee kind of squeaks the last part after searching for words visibly.
Azula would be punished if she looked as if she did not know what she is saying next.
"I speak articulately and properly." Azula leaves it at that, and Ty Lee just shrugs. Her shoulders are so tan and peachy.
And showing. Azula would be far more punished for that. She once wore just her school camisole in the dead of summer and her father looked as if she had just burnt the flag publicly. Actually, she thinks he might have said that dressing like a slut was like burning the flag publicly.
Azula leads Ty Lee towards the statue exhibit, and if Ty Lee notices the armed men, she does not comment on it. Once they arrive, Azula is very startled by Ty Lee's behavior. She looks at the statues with joy, as if they are something divine or thrilling.
"Oh, look at her! Who's that?" Ty Lee asks very eagerly.
"Some victor of a battle." Azula knows her name, the date of the battle, the last of causalities and how many medals were awarded. But Ty Lee does not need to know what an insufferable know-it-all Azula has always been. "She's pretty."
Azula feels awkward with those words coming out of her lips, but Ty Lee nods in assent.
"Pose with her," Ty Lee says and Azula swallows.
"Why?"
"Because you look like the kind of person who would storm into battle and distract everyone with your sexuality and then kill them all," Ty Lee says, nodding and Azula cocks an eyebrow. That is new.
"I guess, I can," Azula says as she steps back.
"Don't stand like that," Ty Lee says and Azula holds her tongue. The princess does not like to be ordered around by anyone, but she also does not have any friends and this is the most human interaction she has had since school let out. "Looser. Haven't you ever seen models? You look like one."
Azula shrugs and does shift her pose and her body.
"Perfect."
"Do you… have a camera?"
"No. I just wanted you to pose." Pause. Azula seems to think she's serious. "Yes, I have a camera. But if you think a stranger taking a picture is too weird..."
That is probably for the best. If a picture of her perched on this statue like an unwise child or a sexualized colony girl got out, it would not be for the best. But the princess changes her mind.
"Take it," Azula says and Ty Lee nods. It happens quickly and Azula, strangely, does not bother even looking at it.
Azula looks up at the gestures towards her and sees that her time is up. "I have to go now. Perhaps I will see you at school in two months."
"Where do you live?" Ty Lee asks, blinking with her luminescent, dark eyes.
"West Caldera," Azula says swiftly. It is a complete lie. Azula has never even been there save from glimpses out of tinted limousine windows.
"Well, I'm in East Caldera. By the pier. It's really pretty and I like the seagulls. I thought that they were some kind of dragon hybrid, like the Fire Nation has and I got really excited. But they were just seagulls." Ty Lee scrunches up her nose and shrugs. "They're still pretty nice. I hope I see you at school too."
Azula scurries away before one of the tactless guards calls her princess and ruins her lies.
Not that Ty Lee wouldn't find out the minute they start school.
It was a very brief, but regrettable day. And Azula knows she must move on.
The ride home is rainy, yet humid. Her skin feels sticky and disgusting despite the air conditioning, and she keeps thinking about how in two months, she is going to see that girl again and it is going to be an utter mess.
She was weird, to say the least. Maybe Azula is better off not associating with her. Particularly given how often her father gets rid of friends he does not approve of. Which is all of them, save for, currently, Mai, because her parents are dripping with the ooze of licked boots.
Azula sees the dark, foreboding gates of her palace, and she puts on the face she should have in front of others.
She thinks she has that grotesque event tonight that she would do anything to get out of. But it is a hopeless, futile situation that Azula accepts wordlessly.
The tune from the piano is still stuck in her head.
