It was the night before the Invasion.

Ty Lee was pacing, worried even though she had no part to play. Azula was completely calm, or so she told herself. She was internally screaming for several days straight because all of this was resting on her shoulders and if it went poorly it would be her head.

Azula liked to say she thrived under pressure but that was a lie.

Ty Lee finally stopped in front of Azula and she very gracefully and swiftly knelt as if her body was pure water. Azula looked at her and found that this position was very uncomfortable. She wondered if Ty Lee also felt that way, which then wasted time she could be using memorizing every possible tactic that could save her life, her crown and her reputation.

"Why are you scared?" Azula asked, cocking an eyebrow. "You have the least to worry about out of everyone in this city."

"I'm not scared about me," Ty Lee said. "I'm scared about you. If something went wrong for you or you died or something my whole life would be ruined."

"Well, that is comforting coming from an obnoxiously optimistic person," Azula said, she began to stand but Ty Lee did not move and so she pretended she was just shifting her sitting position.

"I'm sorry. I want to comfort you. Can I comfort you? Is there a way for that to happen?" Ty Lee asked. Her eyes sparkled below Azula like a pet.

"I doubt it. I should be concerned about what is to come," Azula said and Ty Lee almost cried. Azula did not know what to do about that. "What would you do if you were in this situation?"

"Do you really want to know?" Ty Lee asked, finally standing up. She did ever so slightly brush against the princess but Ty Lee did not seem to notice it, so Azula pretended that she did not notice it either. "You're not gonna like it."

"Now, you don't know that. I am full of surprises," Azula said, standing.

Ty Lee held out her hand, then retracted her hand to rub the sweat off of it on her pink pants. Then she took Azula and guided her through the palace. Azula liked drifting for once, not knowing what would happen next. She always knew that the world would work as she wanted it to work, and so she was never startled.

But she could not guess what Ty Lee had in mind.

They ended up in an old sitting room for entertaining important guests. Ty Lee opened one of the shelves and pulled out a kind of liquor that Princess Azula doubted either of them would be able to stomach.

"I am not drinking that," Azula said.

Ty Lee shrugged. "I am!" she announced, as if it was a good thing.

Azula did sit down on one of the quite comfortable chairs. She watched Ty Lee struggle to open the bottle, which was undeniably amusing. Ty Lee poured it into a glass with shaking hands and sat across from Azula.

"So, I'll do this and you can do whatever you want because you're you and can do whatever you want."

"Of course."


Azula guided Ty Lee back from their hideaway until the moon was beginning to sink in the sky outside. And Princess Azula would be exhausted on the second most important day of her life.

Something about this girl brought out a self-destructive side of herself that she did not know existed. If she were remotely wise, she would cut Ty Lee out of her life completely before Azula did something dreadful like—

"Don't die tomorrow," Ty Lee said. Minutes ago she was far less articulate than she was now. Azula did not know what to do about Ty Lee's moment of clarity. "Because I would never get to do this."

Azula could not react, because she was absolutely not expecting to be kissed on the mouth by someone who smelled an awful lot like a distillery.

Perhaps she could be startled.

Then again, who wouldn't want to kiss her, of course. And Ty Lee clearly had no inhibitions that protected her from Azula's inevitable wrath.

But Azula did not say anything.

She had never been speechless before in her life until this moment.

"It doesn't count when I'm drunk," Ty Lee says and Azula grimaces.

"I do not believe it works that way. It doesn't count when neither of us has an interest in the other," Azula said and Ty Lee narrowed her eyes. She was really dizzy and the world was so far from in focus, you don't even know.

"I thought maybe—I totally misread that—that's why you read the people I guess and all of that and—"

Azula kissed her before she could stop herself.

She could die tomorrow. That was an awful justification, because Azula would not suffer from a scratch and she knew it. But she could pretend that she was a mere mortal and could die the next day. It meant it didn't really count.

It didn't count if it happened because she might die tomorrow.


Azula was already dressed by the time Ty Lee woke up.

Ty Lee wanted to ask if they had slept together but she decided not to do that. The last thing she did remember was kissing Azula, which was extremely stupid, and Ty Lee totally should not have done that, especially since of course Azula would be sober because she was Azula, not one of Ty Lee's friends at the circus who liked partying.

"Last night…" Ty Lee didn't know how to explain herself. She thought up a thousand lies in her head, but she knew that Azula would see right through her.

"Last night? I do not think anything of importance happened last night," Azula said, gifting Ty Lee the privilege of escaping the repercussions of her terrible and uncalled for actions.

"No, we kissed and I really… I really like it a lot and I'm—"

"I do not think anything of importance happened last night. Including that kiss. It will never happen again." Azula left the room.

Ty Lee gazed after her and remembered Azula kissing her back.

It was just nerves, just alcohol, just because they both were super hot and irresistible even to each other.

There were a thousand reasons, but Ty Lee kind of thought maybe Azula loved her back.

Azula struggled to put it out of her mind, but she managed to pretend it didn't happen. She knew that it was a mistake on Ty Lee's part, and that Azula would never be distracted by something as petty as romance or hormones.

They never spoke of it again, because they succeeded at justifying the kisses.

But, as they learned at the Boiling Rock, the worst lies are the ones you tell to yourself.