AN: This is a standalone-but-prequel to Liar in a Little Plaid Skirt that I'm making for #TyzulaTuesday. It probably won't be super long, but it's the story of how they went from enemies to in love. I originally just made a oneshot to flesh out Azula's chemistry anecdote, but I can't just keep things oneshots, apparently.
Perfect Chemistry
Chapter One - Dry
Ty Lee lights her hair on fire in Chemistry class twice.
Which is how she falls in love with Princess Azula, so it's kind of important.
The week before the first incident, it's a dry autumn. Ty Lee is outside, cleaning dried yellow grass off of her new heels. It's the worst possible weather for the start of the school year, and Ty Lee would be trying to run home if it weren't for the looks she is getting.
The Fire Nation has droughts and monsoons and that is it for weather. This year, they are facing a terrible drought.
Sozin High has losers and winners and that is it for popularity. This year, they are about to have that balance upset because Ty Lee is going to stop giggling and blending in.
It is time to be noticed.
Except for the fact that she is chapped and dehydrated. When her hair, lips and skin are crying out for water, it kind of bums out her glow.
"If I didn't, like, sleep in my lipstick would they be better?" Ty Lee asks Yue, the sweetest cheerleader on the team.
Yue shrugs. "It'll probably clear up. I have some chapstick, if you want."
She's sweet. She's so sweet and Ty Lee loves being a cheerleader, loves being her new, reinvented self.
It is the fall after the summer she became pretty and she has never been so happy before in her life.
That first period, however, Azula is extremely unhappy.
Mrs. Yugoda seems to think it is appropriate to just pair people up for the labs. And she seems to have a sense of humor about it, because she has insisted on matching people with their enemies, while claiming that they cannot switch.
Azula? Azula is stuck with Ty Lee now, which, rules or not, she is going to escape. She goes to the teacher after class and sits down across from her.
"I can't be with that girl. I will fail your class because of her and I can't afford to fail any classes. Seeing as I will rule over this great Empire one day," Azula smoothly says, but Yugoda is clearly not impressed. She seemed so kindly when Azula first met her, but that is obviously a joke.
"In your future life, and especially a political career, you have to work with people who are difficult. I'll notice if she makes a mistake and I promise you will be graded fairly. But I can't let you switch. I'm sorry," Yugoda says in a sugary sweet voice that makes Azula want to scream.
Azula seizes her bag and walks out of the classroom while attempting not to burn down Sozin High.
Once Azula makes it to her locker, Mai is predictably unsympathetic. "I got stuck with her awful friend. She apparently hates me for tormenting her in middle school."
"We did not torment anyone. That's absurd, and her fault for being such a weird nerd," Azula says, and Mai does not protest that faulty logic. Her fault for suddenly becoming so attractive. The only thing she didn't change is her braid.
Mai does manage to defuse the situation with, "It's one class. You like being Ty Lee's partner better than listening to Katara be preachy in Fire Nation History."
"I do," Azula admits.
Azula does not become any kinder about the situation with Ty Lee over the course of four hours. Mai does get bored of hearing about it after about five minutes.
"She did get hot," Azula admits as she sits at lunch. One of them had to say it.
"You're into her, aren't you?" Mai sighs.
Azula scoffs at the notion. "That's hysterical. I could not be into her, even if she did start wearing make-up and dressing for her figure."
"You like her figure," Mai comments as Ty Lee knocks over her drink and starts trying desperately to dry up the ever-spreading puddle. Azula could not love that if she were the last person on the planet.
"Anyone would. That does not mean that I want to date her. I said she got hot. That doesn't change the fact that she is currently on the floor covered in purple stains," Azula says. Mai shakes her head.
"You're protesting pretty hard," Mai says coolly, snapping the lid off of a box of berries.
Azula just rolls her golden eyes and pretends to get a text.
In the last minutes of lunch, Ty Lee is in the incense-scented-freshly-painted ladies' room with paper towels. This is the worst. She spent a fortune on these clothes that so perfectly accented the wonders of successful puberty.
Suki tosses her a gym shirt.
"You're kidding," Ty Lee squeals in horror.
"You're not acting like yourself," Suki says with her arms crossed. Ty Lee's purse dangles from the head cheerleader's clenched fist.
"You were the cheerleader first," Ty Lee snaps shrilly.
Suki counters, "You were real once upon a time. Do you want to be sticky and wet all day, or dry and in my gym shirt?"
"I'll look like I'm not wearing pants."
"Doesn't that sound like a plus?"
Ty Lee purses her lips and tries not to cry. "Please stop."
Suki sighs. "I'm sorry. I'm being mean and I shouldn't act like that. I brought you your hairspray too."
Ty Lee grabs the shirt and her purse. "You unhappy about yearlong chem partners too?"
"Yes. I want to destroy them," Suki admits, striding over and poking at her teeth in the crystalline mirror.
Ty Lee somehow takes that seriously. "I think Azula is too good at fighting. And burning things."
Suki laughs and then chokes on the chemicals speeding out of a pink mini aerosol can. "With that amount of hairspray holding your braid together, you'd go up like a match."
"I'm going to get her to date me," Ty Lee announces.
Suki laughs. Then stops laughing when Ty Lee just smiles.
"Why?" whispers Suki.
Ty Lee is proud of her decision, and will not let Suki's scared expression kill her confident aura. "Because I knew I had some kind of destiny when I had make-over summer. My destiny is to make a girl who was so hateful and mean and stuff fall in love with me."
Suki thinks that is extremely gross.
Ty Lee thinks it is the most exciting part of the new school year.
to be continued next Tuesday