How long has it been since someone touched part of you other than your body?
o-o-o
Ty Lee scuffs her feet along the ground as she follows Azula. She is trying to make them scrape in time with Azula's angry stomps, but Azula keeps changing the rhythm of her feet, which is making it hard. Ty Lee sticks her tongue out of the side of her mouth in concentration.
Servants in the hallways drop to their knees and kowtow when they pass, and Ty Lee giggles because, to her eight-year-old mind, they look like turtles, all hunched over like that. Azula, who's nine and therefore not so easily amused, rolls her eyes.
Ty Lee skips forward so that she can stand beside Azula. She watches the older girl out of the corners of her eyes, trying to angle her hips exactly the same way, tilt her head and swing her arms just like Azula. It's hard - Azula has this natural stalk, this way of walking that screams of anger and power and the ability to kick the ass of anyone who tries to take it away from her.
Ty Lee takes a step and trips, stumbling over the arm of one of the bowing servants. She immediately slips into a roll, coming up gracefully to crouch on her heels, and by the time she's standing again, Azula is already berating the woman. Ty Lee starts to giggle, and then snort, and by the time Azula stomps away from the terrified woman and grabs Ty Lee by the elbow to tow her away, she's laughing so hard she can barely walk. And Ty Lee doesn't see it clearly, but she thinks Azula smiles too.
o-o-o
She lands gracefully on her palm, using the strength in her arm alone to vault off again, flipping through the air. She lands near a training dummy and shoots several quick jabs into it's rib area, and her hands come away sooty from the bursts of fire Azula marked it's pressure points with. Ty Lee is barely out of the way when Mai's knives slam into the same spots, and Ty Lee is a little bit pleased to see that she's not quite on center.
o-o-o
Mai's hand is warm in Ty Lee's as they run down the hall. Ty Lee is trying and failing to stifle her giggles, and Mai is even smirking a little. The screams and roars of rage coming from the kitchens convince Ty Lee that this was the best. Prank. Ever.
Azula ran off in another direction, so it's just the two of them, and there are servants in hot pursuit. Ty Lee grins and pulls Mai into a corner, and they watch, breathing hard, as a steady stream of angry hired help charge through. Mai has to put her hand over Ty Lee's mouth to keep her from giving them away with her laughs, and Ty Lee returns the favor, although Mai shakes it off and rolls her eyes at her.
Finally, the coast is clear, and Ty Lee realizes exactly how close she is to Mai, and exactly how warm Mai's breath feels where it's hitting her neck, and before she can talk herself out of it, she's leaning forward and smashing their lips together.
The kiss is awkward, and juvenile, and sloppy, and neither of them really knows what they're doing, but it's good, too.
Mai pulls back and wipes her mouth on the back of her sleeve, and her expression is unreadable again. She steps out of the alcove and heads for back to the rendezvous point they agreed on with Azula. But she doesn't let go of Ty Lee's hand.
o-o-o
Ty Lee is fifteen when she next thinks about girls like that. She and Mai haven't said anything about the kiss, but Mai is too much in love with Zuko for it to mean anything now, and Ty Lee has moved on. She is sprawled on her belly in the courtyard, plucking at grass and driving dirt under her fingernails, and she doesn't really feel as pink as she usually does.
She looks up at the sound of flames slicing through the air, and realizes Azula is outside, practicing her bending. The light is lending her face an alien quality, and she looks gorgeous and dangerous and powerful all at once.
Her thoughts can't seem to get away from Azula - how she looks with her hair down, the way her skirt parts and shifts over her thighs, the way her whole body lunges into each strike, and Ty Lee props her head in her hands, smitten. She never really noticed before how absolutely stunning Azula is, and now she wonders how she could have missed it.
o-o-o
Ty Lee has long since given up on either of her best friends. Mai likes boys - or, well, Zuko, at least - and Azula doesn't seem to like anything but power. Ty Lee's had a few trysts with lesser nobles, male and female alike, which she thinks make her the most experienced of her friends, but she doesn't want meaningless touching. She wants a person.
o-o-o
She presses her cheek into Ty Lee's hip, slowly regaining her breath. Ty Lee's vision is slowly starting to clear, and she cards hands through her lover's hair, carefully. She grins - Ty Lee can feel it against her skin - and slides up her body, pressing against her side. That was most certainly not juvenile. Ty Lee's only eighteen, and she knows her lover is a few years younger, but still. Ty Lee feels like she could keep doing this with her forever.
o-o-o
I don't own AtLA.
o-o-o
A/N This is the first part of three ficlets told in random glimpses about each of Ozai's Angels. Mai is next, and then Azula. I really like writing in this style - little bits and pieces that don't have anything to do with each other except for one common theme or idea. Expect more in this vein from me. Also, the girl at the end can be whoever you want it to be. R&R, please.