"Do you... have to be doing that, Ty Lee?" Azula demands, looking up out of the corner of her eye.
"Doing what, princess?" Ty Lee inquires brightly, as if she has no idea.
Azula hesitates, not sure she exactly wants to voice what she was hoping Ty Lee would notice. The princess wets her lower lip with the tip of her tongue and returns to her work silently.
And Ty Lee continues gradually eating a bowl of cherries in what seems to be the most seductive way a human being could eat fruit. Or perhaps Azula is just imagining that, which might be an even more terrifying prospect.
Azula writes her speech, trying to keep focused on it. Her eyes keep flickering up, examining what Ty Lee is doing with her tongue and it is incredibly disturbing. Azula rubs her lips together and tries to focus on her intricate characters.
"Do you want some of these?" Ty Lee asks and Azula nearly snaps her pen in half. She breathes in sharply and examines her companion. "Sorry... I shouldn't have asked..."
"No, I wouldn't mind it," Azula admits, shrugging and trying to play it off as cool, instead of how heated she feels in places there most certainly should not be heat.
Ty Lee jumps up onto Azula's bed and picks up the nicest cherry she can find. Ripe, damp, juicy... exactly how Azula imagines Ty Lee's lips tasting, exactly those adjectives that she would never be caught saying alive, and the moment the princess has that terrifying thought, her heart jumps with slight panic.
"Remember when you and Mai helped me pass that dumb history final so I didn't have to repeat my year and dishonor my family?" Ty Lee says brightly, smiling at Azula as she rolls the cherry around her own lips subconsciously.
"Yes," Azula replies, her lips smirking on their own accord at the thought of she and Mai with a bag of fire gummies and Ty Lee gleefully shouting, 'Treat!' every time she got a question right.
"Well, I'm going to do this now," Ty Lee says quickly, her leisurely afternoon tone suddenly shifting to a speed Azula can barely keep up with. And she slides the cherry into Azula's mouth before cringing ever so slightly in fear of retaliation.
Azula bites it, leaving her teeth soaked with what looks like blood. She is quite pleased to find that they're pitted, and then she suddenly becomes aware of the juice on her chin, and then she is aware of a tongue licking it off of her.
This is... this is frightening to Azula. She can conquer Ba Sing Se and make decorated military officers cry. She can give speeches and lie to the most powerful man alive. But this... makes her gut twist and her thighs warm.
"I don't think we did that while you were studying," Azula manages to choke out and Ty Lee blushes at how flustered the cold, calculated princess has suddenly become.
"I probably would've gotten a higher grade if you did," Ty Lee says sweetly, cocking an eyebrow and Azula is unsure what to make of anything save for how hot and wet she is right now. "I hope I made up for disrupting your speech, princess. I'm sure it'll be perfect."
"Well, yes, of course." And they are silent for a moment as their eyes do not know how to break apart. A gaze that feels as tempting as those cherries on her lips. "Kiss me, now, Ty Lee!" is Azula's attempt at flirtation and she wants to throw herself into a volcano now.
But Ty Lee just chuckles and complies. And she tastes sweet like cherries.