While everyone else in the mansion was getting to sleep Ty Lee sat quietly in her room reading a book about aliens. It wasn't very good but she wasn't reading it for the plot. When the clock across her room read twenty minutes to midnight she closed the book, set it in her lap, and exhaled deeply. For real this time, she said to herself. Otherwise she'd wasted the cab fare. No backing out.
There was a suitcase under her bed and she hauled it up and flipped it open. Quickly and quietly, she ducked into her closet and picked out an armload of clothes, then dropped them into the suitcase. She cursed at herself for waiting so long, the taxi was supposed to show up in almost fifteen minutes.
A sound coming from her door caught her attention. The door was opened just enough that she could hear the noises other people made when they moved around the house. She stepped towards it, hoping she didn't see anyone on the other side. She stayed silent for a second. Nobody was making any sound, that she could tell anyway. Returning to the suitcase, she worked even faster, folding shirts and pants with haphazard efficiency.
The door swung open slowly, and Ty Lee spun to see her Dad walking casually into the room, staring at the suitcase on her bed with a dull expression. There was a pair of partially folded pants in her arms and Ty Lee struggled to think of an explanation.
"Hey," she said coolly, though her voice broke.
Ty Lee's dad nodded, still looking at the suitcase on her bed. He stepped toward her bed casually, not looking away from it. "That's much too large. You need something small and light, that you can carry on your body at all times." He looked down at the brown thing in his hands, then held it out to Ty Lee. "That way you won't have to set it down and risk losing it or having it stolen." Ty Lee took the brown thing and let it unroll in her hands. It was an old satchel bag, wrinkly and dusty but in good condition and much smaller than her suitcase. She looked up at her dad in confusion. He laughed softly.
"You think I couldn't tell what you're doing?"
"I, um... I was just-"
"Ty Lee, you're an adult. You don't have to lie about leaving home. You can go wherever and whenever you want." Ty Lee looked quickly between the new bag and the pile of clothes in her old suitcase. "You'll have to give up a few outfits but as long as you don't stay in town too long no one will notice you've been wearing the same clothes for two weeks." He pushed the suitcase away from the foot of the bed and sat down. Ty Lee struggled to figure out what to say.
Finally she managed to say "Um, thanks."
"I bought that bag when I was, ah, twenty-six years old, I think. Yeah, that's it. I'd just gotten out of the service. I was just a few years older than you. They dropped me off in Tissuo with my clothes and my trunk, and as soon as I got off the ship I found a messaging kiosk and told my parents I wasn't going straight home." He looked down sort of wistfully at the wall opposite him as he finished. Ty Lee, who was still mentally navigating a totally different conversation, reluctantly sat down next to him.
"How could you tell?" She hadn't set down the satchel. Her dad looked over at her and smiled a bit.
"Because you have too much of your old dad in you. I know your feet get itchy, like you can't sit still. You get that from me. When I was your age all I wanted to do was trade my uniform for civvies and wander the planets. I'm still not even sure why I reenlisted, to be completely honest. The real question though, Ty-" He took the satchel from Ty Lee and brushed some of the dust off. "-Is what were you going to tell your mom?"
Ty Lee tried not to shrink too much. "...I was going to leave a note." Her dad laughed and handed the bag back to her.
"Come on, you know that wouldn't have worked. She still thinks you're twelve years old." He stopped and sighed. "If you thought she was mad at you when you ran away then, just wait until tomorrow morning." Ty Lee shrank a lot. "But I always knew you were going to do it again. I didn't know you were going to wait eleven years to do it, but I knew you would have to leave sometime. None of your sisters are like this, so it must just be a curse that infects only one of our children."
"Where did you go?"
"I started in Tissuo, like I said, and I hitchhiked on a freighter to Bussan. I stayed for a month, then I went to Haode, then Randao... I don't think I stayed anywhere for more than a few weeks. Once I started running out of money is when I'd pack up and blow over to the next town. I worked when I could find it, and borrowed money when I couldn't find it. I don't think I ever stole though.
"So," her dad exhaled, dropping his hands on his thighs with a clap that was sure to wake up Ty Lee's mom. "Where's the first stop on Ty Lee's Big Tour?"
"Um, well-" Ty Lee twisted around to the suitcase behind her and found a stack of travel brochures buried in the clothes. "I got a taxi to the spaceport, and from there I hoped to catch a ship tonight, though I guess I don't really care where for right now. I'll probably figure it out." She handed the brochures to her dad.
"Going off-planet right away, eh? That's quite an adventure to start with." He flicked through the brochures.
"Well I've seen plenty of Earth, when I was with Mai an-" For some reason she choked. Her dad glanced at her with concern. "I'll eventually come back to Earth, at some point, though for now I just really want... I want to go interplanetary. I've never been and I though it would be fun." She shrugged.
"You're right. It it fun. Which of these cities do you want to see the most?" Ty Lee's dad fanned the brochures out in front of her.
"I don't really know. Sirshou looks really beautiful, at least the Night district. No, Kaijian. Definitely Kaijian." She took the brochure out of the fan and opened it. "I've seen pictures of the market streets and it just looks so fascinating and beautiful. Have you ever been?" She offered the brochure to her dad. He took it and inspected it.
"Yeah, I went thirty years ago when it wasn't run by gangsters and terrorists." He pointed to an empty spot in the picture of the city's skyline. "Look, that's where the Irontree building used to be. They didn't even bother to take a new picture, they just cloned the clouds and buildings around it to cover it up. Did you know 63 people people died in that fire?"
Ty Lee took the brochure back. "It's getting better, I heard. Apparently the investigation into that fire pulled the covers off of a whole bunch of gang activity. The city council's really trying to turn the city around."
"Alright, well that's what they always say. Just don't be too shocked if it looks different than in the pictures here." With a sigh he handed all the brochures to Ty Lee. She twisted around to reach for her suitcase, then remembered the bag in her lap and stuffed the brochures in there instead. "How long until your taxi gets here?"
"Um, shit- not long. Sorry." She stood up quickly and started to sift through her clothes to find the best combination to carry. "They should get here at midnight." Her dad stood up from her bed and dropped a hand on her shoulder.
"Ty, no matter how old you are or how far you get from this city, I want you to know that you are always my daughter. It's already going to be hard to think of you going off all by yourself, without your friends, but I know that you are strong, and smart, and capable" He blinked slowly, either gathering his words or warding of tears. Ty Lee was trying to do both.
"If you ever want to come home... I'll hold back your mother long enough to let you get through the front door, because she is going to want to kick your ass." He chuckled. Ty Lee laughed. A tear slid down her face.
"I love you Dad." She hugged him.
"Love you too, Sparrowhawk. I know you'll do great. I'll cover for you tomorrow. Now hurry up and pack, and don't forget to call your mother." He held her out, kissed her on the head, then turned and walked out of her room. Ty Lee pushed a tear off her face and stuffed clothing into the satchel. It was three minutes to midnight.
Ty Lee was at the bottom of an ocean. Not of water and fish, but metal and chaos. In every direction she could think to look there were throngs of people hauling wares, spaceships the size of her entire mansion taking off and landing every second, merchants trying to quickly sell product directly from the ship. Large trucks rumble by frequently. Even after midnight it seemed like it would never stop.
When her cab pulled into the loading lot it occurred to her that she didn't know how to hitchhike. The last time she traveled she was not by herself, and they had resources then. Ty Lee had a bag filled with clothes and a crappy science-fiction novel.
For the longest time she wandered the lot, stopping occasionally to look at ships' service pedestals. All she saw was jargon, but she still wanted to look.
At one o'clock she closed her eyes, turned in a lazy circle, and resolved to inquire the first ship she focused on. She opened her eyes to a squat but cavernous vessel not too far down the line from her. As she walked towards it she briefly made eye contact with a man who she swore was her cab driver.
The ship was called Midnight Sun, according to the words splashed across its hull in blue and red paint. Three men are outside, sitting on or around the loading ramp, talking and laughing. Ty Lee walks closer. One of them is telling a hilarious story involving a wedding cake and a water slide.
"Hello," she says to them, catching their attention. "Can you tell me where your next port is?"
The hilarious one says "Vlastoka, then Revens. After that, not sure." Ty Lee nods and looks up. In the hold of the ship are three massive cylindrical tanks. Someone is walking around them with a clipboard.
"Would you take a passenger?" she asks the hilarious one. He stands up and walks down the ramp towards her.
"Sure. Say, 300 to Vlastoka?"
"I don't speak Voysiich, will it be hard to get around there?" The guy looks at his crew, who all shrugged at him.
"Our client speaks Dovarian. It's right near the border, so you should be fine."
Ty Lee nods. "Okay. Sounds good. When do you depart?"
The hilarious guy looks back at his crew with surprise, then pulls up his sleeve. "We're up in thirty-five minutes, so you better get situated. Is that all you're carrying?"
She pats her dad's satchel. "Yes sir."
"Okay, I guess we've got a passenger. I'm Captain Jenhul." He holds out his hand. Ty Lee shakes it.
"Ty Lee. No title."
Jenhul turns back the ship and walks up the ramp. "Best behavior gentlemen. Jasoo, get a passenger form ready. Akkad, show the guest where she'll be sleeping."
As Ty Lee walks up the ramp of the Midnight Sun she turns back and looks at the chaos of the spaceport. Somehow there seems to be more order than before, a sort of a pattern. In her mind, she wonders how long it'll be until she sees Earth again. She doesn't know it, but it wouldn't be as long as she thinks.
I started writing this a while ago and only just now got around to finishing it. There's a good reason I finished this one rather than some of the other stories I've got half finished: One time I was browsing fanfictions on this fine website and for fun I decided to sort by stories containing Ty Lee. No other filters, just Ty Lee. Of all those stories, the vast majority of them were [Ty Lee/Azula]. Which isn't an issue in and of itself, I certainly don't have any room to be complaining about there being too many Tyzula stories. I just think it's unfortunate that so many writers only seem to regard her as half of a couple, as though she's incapable of existing independently. I may not have any sway with other writers, but for a character as cool and interesting as her it's a shame there isn't more work focused on her. I'll try to peel her away from Azula and sort of examine her independently for a little bit. Thanks for reading.