Azula wakes on her day off; the day of her actual birthday.
It feels blissful for a couple of seconds before she realizes how sore and tired she is. Princess Azula does not think she has ever had a day off in which she did not just sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep some more.
She tends to go out to dinner with father, which she truly likes. But she also would like to maybe have someone to spend it with, even though Azula would never admit that aloud in a million years. And so she rolls over and goes back to sleep, not willing to crawl out of bed.
Especially after what her bodyguard saw.
When Azula rises, Ty Lee is examining the entire living quarters, something habitual she seems to does. Maybe to look like she is doing something when there is nothing she can do.
"What you saw was not anything odd," Azula says and Ty Lee jumps, raising a fist before she recognizes the princess. "It was normal. And I know you think I must be some poor little lonely girl whose father is forcing her through the paces. I am not. I am fully independent and he was just reminding me. It wasn't anything else."
Ty Lee fights back a frown and instead responds with a smile.
"I know. Do you want me to make breakfast?" Ty Lee offers and Azula sighs.
"You're trying to flatter me. I don't respond to that," Azula says sharply and Ty Lee shakes her head.
"No. I said I wanted to be your friend and not your bodyguard, and I mean that. And I am completely happy to make breakfast for you." Ty Lee is unsure if this smile is real or not, but she gives it her best shot.
While she has a staff for that, she has to admit that she would much rather watch her crush cook for her than some old woman who will last for a few days.
As the bodyguard begins to figure out the kitchen that seems to be only for Azula's meals,Ty Lee feels terrible for the girl she is guarding, and that is evident to Azula.
While Ty Lee has built her career on being sweet and befriending everyone, she certainly is going to have a difficult time gaining Azula's friendship, much less her trust. On Azula's break morning, the first she has had in three days ─ Ty Lee can see the dark circles under her eyes and wonders if it is a form of torture ─ Ty Lee makes her breakfast and Azula does not even protest.
That girl must be very lonely, Ty Lee realizes. Even her father seems to isolate her here when she is not useful. But Ty Lee is far from treasonous, and so she just asks Azula what she likes to eat.
"I don't eat any fruits or vegetables if they aren't cut to the proper size. I also refuse to eat anything blue, because nothing is naturally blue and therefore it is probably poisonous. Nothing too sugary or wasteful or I might not stay in perfect shape. Also, I only drink cold water, I hate all tea except for black with lemon, and I dislike when I can see any marks that my food has been cooked," Azula lists with her head resting on the table.
"Do you also require it all to be broiled in unicorn-phoenix tears?" Ty Lee mutters to herself, laughing at her own joke, as she wonders if Azula will take it well or not. Probably not, Ty Lee belatedly realizes. "Just ribbing like friends!" Yeah, not the best excuse.
"Ha ha. Shut up," is Azula's frigid response. Ty Lee did hope Azula hadn't heard her. "If you're going to care for me, do it as I say."
Ty Lee has a sudden realization that this has nothing to do with being a picky eater at sixteen. It has to do with her mommy issues, which Ty Lee has no desire to investigate, even with her talents in espionage. The former Princess Ursa is simply not spoken of, an agreed upon taboo even outside of the walls.
But Ty Lee does think she sees why and how Azula manages to send every nanny away sobbing. Ty Lee, however, is not a nanny. She is a soldier. She is also an accomplished infiltrator, and Azula is now her target (even if Ty Lee's job is stopping anyone who has Azula as a target).
She is going to break Azula's walls and get inside of her, for no other reason than the fact that Ty Lee wants to.
Azula has a quite similar relentless desire. To get Ty Lee inside of her in a much more literal way, for no other reason than the fact that Azula wants to.
They both are together, Azula with a day off, and Ty Lee having no clue what to do about that. She is supposed to protect the princess at all times, to constantly be beside her. But it is odd when she is not ushering her through crowds or scanning for assassins.
The two of them are just here, in Azula's private chambers, and Ty Lee does not think Azula wants to be best friends. So Ty Lee tries to give Azula a decent amount of space, as the princess reclines on her sofa and is very soon asleep.
Ty Lee finishes her thousandth round, which does nothing but distract her from being alone with Azula. She licks her lips and wishes that this were much, much easier. It is in her frustration and anxiety that she lets one little thing slip. That she leaves the balcony a little bit ajar.
And how she will regret that later.
She walks to Azula and finds her awake, but still curled into herself, trying to keep herself comfortable, or at least in a soothed daze.
Ty Lee gently nudges her and whispers, "I'm going to go lie down. Don't do anything stupid."
Ty Lee at last goes to her room and organizes it a few times before finding her pretty stationary and writing letters to Suki and Sokka and Haru. The princess's loneliness is being spread to Ty Lee by the minute, and it is not a pleasant sensation.
But Ty Lee has just sealed the envelopes with hot wax when she hears Azula's ear-splitting scream, and can feel the heat of fire from a room over. Ty Lee runs out, fists ready, and she sees assailants. In the palace. In the palace.
Ty Lee is the worst bodyguard ever. She moves, although Azula has already reduced two of the men to charred remains, and takes the rest down as she orders the princess to stand back. Slowly, Ty Lee paces, examining them for signs of life. One Azula burned has a destroyed face, but he is gurgling blood and attempting to move his not burnt-to-bone arm.
Quietly, Ty Lee puts him out of his misery. The rest are dead, save for a paralyzed one that Ty Lee can interrogate later.
"Send for the guards," Ty Lee demands breathlessly, wondering how her easy day suddenly transformed into this.
"I can't!" Azula snarls and Ty Lee rolls her eyes, expecting yet another spoilt rant.
"Why?" But Ty Lee turns around and sees why, and then does not turn away.
Right there, in front of her, is the princess with a towel haphazardly wrapped around herself, her wet hair dripping along her smooth, ivory skin. She has taken no care to hide her breasts, and Ty Lee stares too long. Much, much too long. At how her skin is so light, and her hard nipples so red and ─
Ty Lee moves to grab Azula as she hears more motion, and that seems to excite the sixteen year old in a very bad way.
"You are all very late," Ty Lee snaps at the guards who must have heard the screaming. "She is also naked, and so I am─" at that, Princess Bad Touch decides to press Ty Lee's hands over her round tits as some form of modesty. "And so I am going to take her to her room to put on clothes, and you are to take the alive attacker to be interrogated."
Ty Lee awkwardly walks away, ignoring the rush of heat that comes from having her hands so tightly in an uncomfortable place.
Azula smirks.