Title: One Short Second
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Mai/Ty Lee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,619
Summary/Description: Sometimes, that's all it takes.
Warning/Spoilers: None of either. Pretty much pre-series.
A/N: Written for Jlh for the Avatar Slash Exchange on LJ. Slightly AU; let's say Ty Lee's circus stayed in the Fire Nation, very close to home.
Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA.
As usual, Ty Lee didn't bother to knock. There was the sound of scuffling outside of Mai's door, a few thumps and a giggle, and then the door eased open and in Ty Lee pranced, perfectly balanced on her hands. Her braid hung over her shoulder and dragged along the rug as she walked, and when she had advanced far enough, she kicked back one of her legs, and the door swung shut. Her lips were spread in an almost impossibly wide smile, and her eyes sparkled. Mai rolled her eyes affectionately before she even spoke.
"What, aren't your feet any good anymore?" she asked by way of greeting. She was lounging on her bed, twirling a throwing star absently around her finger, and eating fruit from a tray. "And I suppose it would be too much to ask you to knock," she added with a smirk.
If anything at all, Ty Lee grinned wider.
"Oh, Mai, you know I have to practice my handstands and flips and cartwheels as much as possible! Don't wanna get rusty too soon~." As if to illustrate, she did a series of back flips and pivots, and landed gracefully of the balls of her feet, rocking slightly with motion. Mai snorted a little; Ty Lee wasn't getting rusty anytime soon. She skipped over, and plopped herself down on the mattress, near the foot of the bed.
"And your mom told me I could come right up, so I did! Besides, you don't really mind me not knocking, do you~?"
That was true, she conceded to herself. There were only two people who would enter her room at will (though Azula hardly ever knocked before opening just about any door) and after all these years as friends, it had ceased to bother her even a little. Still, she smirked faintly at her friend as she traced the cold steel edges of the star with a worn, practiced finger.
"It could have been a bad time," she said lightly, dryly affecting a serious tone. Ty Lee wasn't having it; she smiled more as she scooted closer. Mai could see that her chestnut hair was a little damp, her face spotted here and there with dots of sweat. She had probably come straight here from the tents.
"But it's not, is it?" the acrobat pressed. "I can tell. Your chi is really warm and relaxed and a nice mellow blue colour. …A little too blue at the centre, but still! That's good, Mai!"
Mai chose to ignore the last part of what her friend had said, and blew out a stream of air that made her bangs shift. An eyebrow cocked.
"Warm and relaxed… have those become synonyms for 'bored' or something? Because that's what I am right now," she drawled. "Dead bored."
Ty Lee frowned, pale brow furrowing.
"You really shouldn't be so negative, Mai." She wagged a finger at Mai in an almost motherly way. "You're going to mess up that great aura."
The darker haired girl gave a negligent shrug.
"I'm just saying. It's true."
Ty Lee gave the slightest of pouts, and then her face lit up in the kind of way that could only mean trouble for those around her.
"Hmph. Well… you aren't anymore! Because I'm here, and we're gonna have a slumber party!
Mai groaned a little, and Ty Lee, already sunny and excited, pretended not to hear it.
"It's the perfect thing! You won't be bored, I'll get to give you a makeover-" She blithely ignored Mai's consternated look and raised brow, and ploughed on cheerfully. "-and we'll get in some great friendly bonding. Everybody wins!"
"We don't exactly have the same definition of 'winning'," Mai deadpanned, and sent the throwing star spinning into the air. The metal whizzed and whirred, making the humming sound that was so familiar and comfortable to her now. She shot Ty Lee a baleful look, but it was weak. If she was truthful with herself, she didn't really want to be alone right now. Ty Lee was the perfect person to distract her from her boredom and all those annoying thoughts that plagued her when she least expected it. He had been gone for about two and a half years now, and still…
She stopped herself before she went too far along that train of thought.
She sighed, and rolled her eyes once again. Ty Lee was smiling at her expectantly.
"My mom isn't going to like this," she said, just to be clear. "Dignified young ladies aren't supposed to have slumber parties."
It was as good as an acceptance for Ty Lee. She shot to her feet, expression radiant.
"You let me worry about your mom," she trilled as she flitted about the wide bedroom and the connecting room, gathering various objects in her arms. Mai could see makeup and hairbrushes and little combs in her hands, and she sighed again.
"Yeah, whatever," she said, trying not to smile. Ty Lee's star bright disposition could get taxing, but it was infectious as always, even to her. "What about Azula?"
Ty Lee spun back over to the bed, and dumped her cache of goods unceremoniously. She looked as if she was ready to break out into song.
"Oh, it would be nice if she could come, wouldn't it? But I think there's another one of those war meetings, and you know Azula would never want to miss those."
Mai shrugged.
"Good for her." She'd never been to a war meeting, and honestly didn't ever want to. She'd probably fall asleep right in the middle of it. "I don't know how she— what are you doing?"
Ty Lee had climbed onto the bed and gracefully wormed her way behind Mai's back. She pushed the girl into a sitting position, and was now running her fingers through her hair, from deep near the scalp to the shiny tips. Mai frowned, and threw a glance behind her. Ty Lee was giggling.
"Starting with your hair, of course!"
Mai's answer was a sigh.
"Come on Mai! You've got such thick, shiny hair; there's so much you can do with it, and you'll always look good! It'll be so fun to see it in a different style, admit it."
Mai wasn't admitting anything; she rolled her eyes.
"I don't see you trying out different hairstyles," she pointed out. She turned around enough to be treated to the sight of Ty Lee smiling brightly as she extracted the small pins and combs from deep within Mai's dark tresses. The rest of her heavy hair fell around her shoulders and onto her back, and Ty Lee continued combing through it with her fingers.
"That's because I've already found the perfect hairstyle to complement my aura, silly!"
"Right. How could I not have known." She watched resignedly as her friend dug through the pile of accessories, and came with a large comb, looking very excited. She scrambled lithely back to her position behind Mai's back, and stole a berry from the tray before beginning to carefully comb Mai's hair.
"Alright! What should we talk about first?"
"Whatever, I guess." Mai leaned back a little, figuring she might as well get comfortable. She rest the right side of her head against Ty Lee's shoulder, which was just a little bit damp, but still very, very warm. Ty Lee concentrated on combing through the left hair of her hair, with long, soft strokes of the comb. Mai could hear the slight pout in her voice when she next spoke.
"Come on, Mai! You have to participate to really make this work."
"This was your idea," Mai reminded her a tad sourly, selecting a piece of fruit from the tray.
"My great idea. Well... I guess I should go first!"
"By all means," said Mai dryly. "Fire away, then."
"Hmm." There was a break in the combing as the acrobat paused to think, tapping her finger lightly against her chin. "Oooh, I know! There were some new boys at the tents today; the new recruits that I told you we would be getting, remember?"
"Exciting," Mai offered, spearing another piece of fruit with a point of the throwing star.
"I thought so too!" Ty Lee said. "Some of them were pretty cute, too. And they were soooo nice; they held out the net for me to practice on the tightrope. I must've gotten two hours of extra practice!"
"Fun."
"Pretty much! It's going to be great having them around, I think; all the other boys were getting kinda boring, to tell the truth," she carried on conversationally. She petted Mai's hair absently as she combed, and the darker haired girl had to admit grudgingly to herself that it felt pretty good. Ty Lee was good at this; her hair and scalp felt free and comfortably light.
"One of them caught me by surprise, though," Ty Lee was saying. Mai could hear the frown in her voice, and concentrated more on what she was saying.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked, slightly concerned. She knew that her friend could more than take care of herself if something came up, or if any one of the boys decided to do something stupid. But usually, when boys became overly persistent towards Ty Lee, they became twice as annoying as usual, and Mai and Azula usually became involved one way or the other. She wasn't looking forward to that in particular.
Ty Lee had stopped combing altogether.
"It wasn't that big of a deal, I guess... but, ugh, it was so gross!" A pause. "Okay, let me show you."
She crawled around until she was sitting in front of Mai, face to face. Mai hadn't noticed when she'd done it, but her braid was loosened, and her hair was swinging freely around her shoulders in bouncy brown curls, reaching all the way down to the small of her back. She pressed a hand to her chest.
"Okay, I can be gross new guy, and you can be me."
Mai smirked, lifting a brow.
"Alright. Do I have to imitate you?"
Ty Lee laughed, as if the idea greatly amused her.
"No, not if you don't want to! But it probably wouldn't hurt for you to smile some more," she teased, eyes sparkling.
Mai mirrored her smile.
"Yeah, whatever." She threw her hair over her shoulder. "Alright, I'm Ty Lee and I'm pretty and happy and popular and bubbly and whatever," she said in her normal tone of voice, still smirking.
Ty Lee grinned, and used her fingers to comb her bangs back into the rest of her hair, so that her round, flushed face stood out, and her brown eyes shone.
"And I'm Zheng, and I'm big, and I've got muscles and slick wet lips like a turtleduck, and I'm not as cute as half the other guys," she said in a faux-deep voice, sucking in her stomach and sticking out her chest and lips. Mai's brows rose in barely concealed amusement.
"Hey Zheng."
"Hey there sweetness," she said in the same ridiculous voice, waggling her brows. "I really like that top you're wearing; very stylish."
"Thanks," Mai gave wryly. "I got it from one of my sis—"
Quick as a flash, Ty Lee leaned in, warm and soft, and pressed slightly parted lips against Mai's. She sucked in a sharp breath, surprised. She hadn't at all anticipated the swift movement, or the softness of Ty Lee's mouth on hers, or the sweetness of her breath, or the heat of her skin. She sat very still, a little perplexed, a little consternated, not knowing what to do.
She grappled with sheer instinct for a moment or two; an instinct that told her to press forward, and crush her lips harder against Ty Lee's. It was a silly impulse, the sensible part of her brain told her; Ty Lee was one of her closest friends, but they weren't that close. Not in that way. They didn't do things like this; this was just a demonstration, and nothing more.
The sensible part of her brain was getting annoying.
Just as Ty Lee was about to pull away, break the tight seal that their lips had made, Mai shifted, and angled her head, moving closer. She didn't know what she was doing, but she was doing it anyway. Ty Lee seemed surprised by the movement, but not for long. One of her warm hands came to rest on Mai's shoulder, near her neck, fingers sliding into her hair. She pushed forward with the same amount of force, and they were kissing; lips melding together, breathing each other's air. Mai didn't know how, but one of her hands found their way to the back of Ty Lee's neck, cupping it, bringing her friend closer into her space until their legs were almost on top of one another, and their chests brushed together all too lightly, for one short second.
Ty Lee opened her mouth, and whatever instinct Mai was following urged her to follow suit. Their lips wrapped around each other tentatively, tongues touching shyly.
It was Mai who pulled back first, still a tad perplexed. Ty Lee's lips clung for an extra second, and then she leaned back as well, looking happily confused.
"Hm," Mai said, and resisted the urge to press her fingers to her lips.
Ty Lee laughed.
"Well, that was a lot less gross than when Zheng did it," she said brightly, before Mai could fall into the trap of awkwardness before her. She smirked, the corner of her mouth curving and her eyes narrowing pleasantly. She gave a short shrug, thinking that the evening had turned out a whole lot less boring than she'd thought.
Her friend giggled, cheeks flushed. She cupped Mai by the cheeks and pressed two quick kisses to her mouth, short and feather light.
"A lot, lot less gross," she laughed.
"Hm," Mai pronounced again, tilting her head to one side, leaning into one of her friend's hands. "So I'm less gross than a big muscled circus guy. Lucky me."
Ty Lee was grinning as she crawled back around to Mai's back, taking her warmth with her. Mai tried not to note the absence too much.
"You're way prettier, too," she added, running her fingers through Mai's dark hair once again, lifting the tresses and letting them flutter back down slowly. Mai was still smirking as she turned by a fraction, and reached back to press a finger against Ty Lee's wrist. Just for one short second.
"So what happened to that Zheng guy anyway?"
Ty Lee chuckled, low and carefree.
"Oh, I left him conscious, but when he could move again, it probably hurt a lot."
"Good," Mai said, and meant it. Ty Lee picked up the comb once more, and ran it through Mai's thick hair, from root to tip.
"Anyway, that's what I meant when I said he surprised me." The annoyance in her voice was clear, but fading in the periphery of her obvious light-heartedness. "I hate pushy, sneaky guys like that. And he wasn't even a good kisser!"
"You gave him no less than what he deserved," Mai said flatly, thinking of what she would have done if she'd been there. There was a pause before she added, "You surprised me, too." Light colour rose in her cheeks.
Ty Lee giggled, gathering up all of Mai's hair in a hand, and tapping the nape of her neck with a finger.
"I figured I did, but that's different, isn't it? We're friends; best friends."
Mai paused for a breath, letting the words sink in, and settle comfortably inside of her. She smirked.
"Yeah. We are."