The second chapter early. Have I earned forgiveness?


Words Unspoken


"It hurts to breathe. It hurts to live. I hate her, yet I do not think I can exist without her."


"She is not well, you should not stay long." The healer speaks down to the already distracted young Kyoshi warrior, her tone a good reflection of the monotone hospital. While she speaks she never looks up from her notepad. "Try not to upset her, the fits have been particularly bad of late."

Ty Lee nods her head the air of the place making her feel much more serious than she is comfortable with. The aura feels wrong to her, a place to heal should not be so dark and the people inside so grey. She is so distracted by her thoughts she squeals as the heavy iron bolt is removed from the door to Azula's... Room? They call it a room, but it is a cell and not the nicest cell either. Inside Azula seems focused on the ceiling her face holding a distant expression oblivious to Ty Lee and the orderly beside her.

"Could I speak to her alone?" Ty Lee asks, the staff had been afraid that Azula would try to escape and so no one but Zuko was allowed to see her alone. But the Azula who Ty Lee saw now was not the Azula she had once believed could conquer the Earth Kingdom single handedly. Just considering that felt wrong in her mind, Azula can not be weak she was always strong.

"I do not believe that would be wise." The old orderly tries to warn, but Ty Lee's stance is resolute and the nurse if forced to give in, she does not like dealing with so many children in her hospital. "As long as I am not responsible for what happens you can do whatever it is you want child."

The sound of the shutting door forces Azula out of her trance, and she notices Ty Lee's presence for the first time causing a small smile to form. And then her face hardens as the memories of betrayal force their way back inside. But Ty Lee notices the smile and as small as it is she focuses on that side instead. Once she would have relied on Azula's strength to bolster her own. Now she has to be strong for Azula, and that half smile is enough to remind her why.

"Well Zuko figured this place needed some lightening up, so I brought you these." Ty Lee pulls out a small bundle of white flowers ornately arranged in a pink vase. Of course she would bring something pink, Azula rolls her eyes but does not speak. Since her brother's visit the only time she made a sound was during a fit and those were little more than incoherent screams. She is proud she has made it four days now without even breaking her self-imposed silence to throw insults at the attendants.

Ty Lee places them beside the window, outside of the direct light. "They're called Moon Flowers, they only blossom in partial light and I thought it kind of reminded me of you." The window is small and can barely illuminate the entire room. Zuko was right Ty Lee thinks to herself, she needs more light here.

Moving from the window Ty Lee pulls the chair opposite Azula to beside her friend. Sitting down she grabs the fiery princess's silky hair and begins brushing it, it's difficult to work with due to the damage that had been done to it since Azula had been brought here but the acrobat is stubborn, more stubborn than the hair, and soon begins to work out the knots with a soft touch gained from a familiar knowledge with her friend's hair.

"Remember when we were little, and you used to believe that your servants were trying to make you look ugly because they were jealous." Ty Lee talks as she runs the brush down her friends long unkempt hair, the hair is dirtier than Azula would ever allow if she had a choice. Ty Lee made a mental note to wash her hair on her next visit. "So you wouldn't let anyone touch your hair but you, but you never did get the bun just right. So eventually you let me do it, of course you always triple checked to make sure I did it right. But you trusted me, in your own way."

Azula keeps quiet, but she doesn't fight the young acrobat and instead allows her to move her head to make the task easier. She tries to reason that it was because her hair is a mess and it doesn't matter who did it. But it is enough for Ty Lee, to be able to talk to her friend and touch her soft flowing hair again. Everything after will come in time.


The Moon Flower (Chinese: 月花) is a plant indigenous to the Earth Kingdom that produces a cream-white flower. It is kept decoratively for its pleasing appearance. With a rapid response to changes in brightness, it wilts in direct sunlight and quickly blossoms when placed in partial shade.

So now we are going to play a game called Spot The Tense. After rewriting these two chapters so many times, and switching tense from past and present countless (five) times I apparently messed up all my tenses, thankfully a friend took the time to help me out but I probably still messed things up, so anyone who spots an out of place tense gets a cookie. Not the evil kind that news sites like to use to track you and sell your information to the government. Puts on tinfoil hat. But the nice chocolate kind, the chocolate without milk because being lactose intolerant doesn't mean you should miss out on my cookies.