It was something they didn't discuss.
They saw the marks he left on her. They saw the bruises and the burns, the trail of bite marks down her neck. They saw the cuts where his fingernails had dug into her skin. Azula never brought them up. Once, just once, Ty Lee had dared to ask whether Azula wasn't hurting, ignoring the warning look on Mai's face.
The glare in those bright golden eyes had been more than enough to end that topic forever.
Despite herself, despite knowing that she was supposed to ignore them, Ty Lee couldn't help leaving kisses on each and every bruise, each and every dark, painful spot on Azula's skin. She imagined Ozai's fingers there, gripping too tightly, painfully, and planted her lips there instead. Her care couldn't take the marks away, but she wanted to abate the pain. For every careless scar Ozai left on his daughter, Ty Lee left a purposeful declaration of commitment.
I care about you. I want to see your skin whole and undamaged. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be left alone.
Azula didn't always go along with Ty Lee's gentle ministrations. She wasn't always content to lie back and let the lips ghost over her skin. Some days, she was angry. Some days, she was as vicious as her father.
Azula left marks on both of them, Mai and Ty Lee alike. Her fingers made bruises and her too-hot hands made burns. She dug her teeth into their throats and shoulders and sucked and sucked as if she would take their breath away. The heat on her skin was vicious, uncontrollable.
It scared Ty Lee. There was too much to Azula; there was too much boiling underneath the surface. Ozai had put a kettle over a flame and never come back to fetch it.
She didn't care that many nights she had to nurse her own small injuries. Azula only held so tightly because she had to know that something was there. Azula only hurt because she had been hurt herself. If it would relieve the pressure to be Azula's punching bag, Ty Lee thought she was willing to make that sacrifice.
"Are you all right? She's really done a number on you." Mai's voice was quiet, but Ty Lee always heard her.
"What? It's no problem at all! They don't hurt at all, I promise!"
Ty Lee wasn't as good at lying as Azula.
Mai said that if she resisted enough, Azula wouldn't push as hard. And it was true that Mai didn't ever look as if she had been attacked by a ravenous beast, which was how Mai described Ty Lee after her encounters with the princess.
But Ty Lee didn't want to push back. She would take and take as much as was necessary. She would bring it on herself, not out of some sense of masochism but because she thought Azula needed it. Every night, after Ozai was done with Azula, Azula came to Ty Lee, and Ty Lee did what she could to help Azula forget the marks her father left.
Let me cancel out the hurt.
