NEON LIGHTS
Azula loved arcades.
The deafening noise, the flashing lights, the competition, her name on every scoreboard. She always wins and she always turns even the silliest of endeavors into the toughest fight of her life. Azula never lost regardless of the circumstances.
"This is so much more fun than going on dates with boys!" Ty Lee exclaimed, although the sight of so many couples made her feel sick. She turned to Azula. "Or-or girls, in your case."
"Yes. It is," Azula said.
Ty Lee turned to her and took a risk. "We could hold hands and pretend to be in love like when we were little girls."
Azula cackled at that suggestion. "You are occasionally funny when you joke."
Ty Lee blushed and her stomach churned.
Azula strode forward into the room decorated with paper hearts and packed with pairings.
Ty Lee ran to Fruit Ninja—gigantic version—of all things. Azula lingered behind her, tossing her raven hair behind her back and watching Ty Lee fail to slice fruit. An imbecile with wooden fingers could do better, but Azula kept it to herself.
She wondered why. Usually, she preferred to point out the flaws of her competition in order to make them self-conscious and easier to defeat.
"Let's play a fighting game like adults," Azula ordered and Ty Lee left the game before she was finished. The fruit fell, unslashed and left be. Ty Lee lost solely to follow the words of her best friend since childhood.
She always listened to Azula, because Azula's words would propel even the defiant. Ty Lee loved her for a century. Ty Lee loved her for a thousand years. Of course,Ty Lee would do absolutely anything to make her happy.
Azula always cared about Ty Lee following orders. She despised the defiant and never let them play with her or befriend her or join her school clubs, and Ty Lee was obedient. But that was not why. She always felt strange around the girl with the braid. Like she was about to explode or implode or somewhere in-between.
The truth was, Azula loved her back, but neither of them knew it.
Ty Lee ran to the first set of plastic guns she saw and jammed two of the billion tokens Azula purchased with her father's infinite money. Azula did the same and stood beside her.
Azula utterly destroyed Ty Lee.
She bested her high score at Galaga while Ty Lee took selfies and admired the prizes. Then, Ty Lee just admired Azula as she defeated the blocky alien invaders.
Azula was not as good as Ty Lee at one thing only: racing games. Ty Lee learned to drive as soon as she could because she needed to get independence away from her sisters and go places other than her rundown house on Kyoshi Row. But Azula had a driver and went everywhere by shining black car or limousine. She did not even have a license; Ty Lee drag raced with Mai and the boys when Azula had to stay home and study.
When Ty Lee beat her for the third time, Azula bared her teeth like a monster.
"Maybe we should buy prizes," Ty Lee said, batting her eyelashes and trying to look as cute as possible. She pouted her pink-painted lips and assumed the smallest posture possible.
"Fine," Azula said. "Then laser tag, then food at the bar."
"Yay!" Ty Lee beamed and got up off of the sweaty, clunky machine.
Azula took several steps forward so that Ty Lee would not be following her and they walked to the gleaming, well-illuminated prize store. Azula teemed with tickets like she teemed with real money and the girls studied the exciting items.
"These are so cheap and trashy but I kind of want them all," Azula commented as Ty Lee grabbed squishy animals. "You can't afford any of this."
Ty Lee stood up and looked cute again. "But you're my bestest friend and so you'll buy me something pretty."
Azula glanced around.
"Fine. But I get to choose what I buy you with my hard-earned Galaga tickets," she said.
Ty Lee hugged her. The scent of familiar perfume made Azula shiver. She could not conceal how good it felt to smell that and feel soft, peachy skin against her smooth ivory arms.
Azula saw what she wanted to gift Ty Lee. It was a ring. She did not know why she wanted it so much, but she then saw that, after purchasing a good deal of trinkets for herself, she needed more for it.
"We need to dance," Azula said.
Ty Lee smiled. "I love dancing games!"
"I need to buy you a prize in particular. You better earn me tickets," Azula said as they rushed to the shiny, neon Dance Dance Revolution.
The girls were faster than lightning. Ty Lee had grace and tricks; Azula was precise in every single movement. They made it rain at that game.
Azula stumbled at one point and Ty Lee caught her, helping her back onto the pads before they lost a single point. They both blushed.
When finished, Azula bought Ty Lee a ring with rough paper tickets instead of her credit card.
She slid it on the finger of her best friend.
Ty Lee's heart raced out of control and she thought she might throw up.
During the much-anticipated laser tag, Ty Lee and Azula were placed on different teams by some bad luck. They fought far better together and fought even better with Mai's assistance. Now, they were stuck as enemies in a dark, dingy arena with twelve other teenagers.
Azula perched in a tower after stealing several kills. Someone seized her arm and she was stunned by being caught off-guard. Thankfully, she turned to see Ty Lee, who would never shoot her.
"Why the Hell didn't you sing out? I nearly blew you away," Azula snarled. "We practice this often enough for you to know better."
"I should've done better, but, respectfully, this isn't real war Azula," Ty Lee whispered, sinking down behind the cover in the tower beside her true love. She so rarely objected that Azula was stunned by those oppositional words.
"You know, we're technically enemies," Azula said. "I could shoot you so easily."
"Please don't," whispered Ty Lee. "I just really wanna be close to you. I'll help you take down everybody else even if I have to punch them onto the floor so we can aim better."
Azula smirked. "That is why I love you."
Her eyes widened. She did not mean to say that.
"I love you too," Ty Lee said, unable to prevent the wide smile spreading across her face.
"I…" Azula could not say it. She would not be humiliated or degraded.
"I love you as more than a friend," Ty Lee said quietly.
"I…" Again, Azula could not bear it. She stood up and started picking off the confused teens who stumbled in front of her viewpoint.
Two of them ran up into the tower and Ty Lee grabbed Azula by the waist. She flung them both over the side like fools, maneuvering in a fashion that would break the limbs of the less-nimble. They ran towards the edge of the laser tag arena.
"Do you love me back?" Ty Lee whispered as they drew closer to the back of the shadowy, panicked, sweaty room.
Azula pushed Ty Lee up against the wall and kissed her full force as an answer.
Then she pointed the gun at Ty Lee's chest and shot her. The vest flashed. Ty Lee lost. Azula smirked at two kinds of victory.
She stole Ty Lee's heart and shot her in it at the same time.
Azula loved arcades.
A/N: I'm thinking about continuing this story. Any thoughts on that?