Warning: mentions of sexual coercion

It was late when they returned to their room. Azula had dropped immediately to her bedroll, her back facing Ty Lee's, much to her disappointment, and after suppressing several yawns, Ty Lee had decided to call it a night as well. She had hoped to speak with Azula about what happened at the fountain in the morning. Now, however, sitting across from her roommate, gnawing on a piece of potato, she is having trouble making the words come out.

Truth be told, she has no idea what she feels. She had had a crush on Azula at fourteen, of course. Mai had made fun of her for it because it was much better bait for jokes than her simultaneous crush on Sokka had been, but she was fourteen, her hormones raging. She had not cared at the time about the danger, the frustration, the hurt that certainly would have accompanied being engaged in any sort of intimate relationship with the Princess of the Fire Nation. Not to mention she had never dreamed in a million years that her feelings would be returned.

She is eighteen years old now. She has a job and an apartment and several boys she can go to whenever she wants. And Azula is not the same person. She still has a tongue sharp as a blade and enough wit to outsmart all of the world leaders at once, but she seems to have at least a peripheral awareness of others' feelings now. She is much less power-crazed. It is probably because Zuko has been her primary source of human contact for the past three years, Ty Lee realizes, as opposed to Ozai. That and the loss of her bending.

But Ty Lee's feelings for Azula are gone. They disappeared sometime during her stint in the Boiling Rock, and they're not coming back.

Are they?

Maybe if Ty Lee only knew how she felt, the words would come to her. She has never been lost for words before.

For her part, Azula is not making eye contact. She has been completely silent all morning. Ty Lee cannot tell if it is out of anger or shame or confusion. She merely eyes the potato she is holding. She has been nibbling on it for nearly half an hour and barely any of it is gone. Azula does not eat much these days, no matter how much food Ty Lee shoves into her hands. It is extremely distressing.

"Azula, you need to eat." It is becoming a common phrase in their makeshift household. Ty Lee pleading with Azula to eat, to sleep. It is like the Princess is about to self-destruct again, and Ty Lee has no idea how to stop it.

Sighing, Azula bites a large chunk off of the potato, but after very deliberately chewing and swallowing, she goes back to simply staring at it again.

"Azula, why won't you tell me what's going on?" Ty Lee prods. "I know this isn't about what happened last night. You've been doing this for months now."

"Nothing is going on," Azula repeats, rolling her eyes in a way that might have convinced Ty Lee three years ago. Now she just crosses her arms and raises a skeptical brow.

"Then why won't you eat the pota—"

Ty Lee is interrupted by a knock at the door. With a groan, she pushes herself off the floor and goes to answer it.

"Wu Ling?" She cocks her head to the side. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Wu Ling answers. His eyes are wide, confused and a little afraid. "There are some people downstairs for you." He lowers his voice to a whisper. "Dai Li agents. Do you have any idea what this is about? They asked for you by name."

"No," Ty Lee answers slowly. Her heart is suddenly racing as she attempts to plan an exit strategy on the fly. "I'll be down in a minute," she lies. "I just need to… wash up."

"I'll tell them," Wu Ling answers.

She thanks him and closes the door. When she looks over, Azula is already on her feet shoving their belongings into the old sack, the potato laying on the floor, forgotten. Ty Lee rushes into the washroom and pulls the string of beads of the mirror, gathers the playing cards on the table, and rips the mobile from the ceiling. After a second thought, she grabs the flute she once bought for Azula, still gathering dust where it landed when she threw it all those months ago, and shoves it in the bag. Azula is kneeling on the ground rolling up the bedrolls.

"We don't have time for that," Ty Lee argues in a loud whisper. "Just shove the blankets in here. It'll be cold tonight."

She turns and, as quickly and quietly as she can, begins to rip the pieces of wood from the window. She can hear voices downstairs. They still sound cheerful. With any luck, Wu Ling has distracted the men with something alcoholic, something that will slow them down.

"They're going to hear us when we hit the ground," Ty Lee whispers urgently. "Go right. Run towards the zoo. We need to get out of the Lower Ring."

"Or we could fight," Azula replies. "Why run? We know we can take them."

"That's not the point," Ty Lee argues. "They know we're here now. We can't stay." She climbs up on to the window sill, Azula beside her. "At the count of three," she begins. "One, two—"

"Now!" Azula cries, leaping from the window. Ty Lee is just behind her, and they hit the ground within a second of each other.

"Come on," Azula hisses, already standing, trying to run and pull Ty Lee off the ground at the same time. She slings the bag over her shoulder and stumbles to her feet, and they break into a sprint.

Ty Lee knows that the Dai Li have started after them when a wall of earth rises from the street, blocking their path. Without a word, Azula grabs her hand and guides her down the nearest alley. Ty Lee topples waste bins and abandoned pieces of furniture behind them as they run.

When they emerge back onto the street, Azula does not drop Ty Lee's hand. She pulls her at a diagonal toward another alley. They continue like this, every street taking the next alley over. By the time they emerge from the fourth alley, Ty Lee understands why. They will be more difficult to spot in an alley than on the main street. Azula is taking advantage of the fact that they know the neighborhoods of the Lower Ring better than the Dai Li.

They are panting by the time they reach the wall. Ty Lee leans heavily against it and crosses her arms over her stomach. Azula is nearly doubled over trying to catch her breath.

"We need… to keep going," Ty Lee says, though she makes no move to do so. "I think… the gates to the zoo… are that way."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Azula snaps, snatching Ty Lee's hand back and pulling her along the wall as quickly as her legs will carry her. Azula is nearly wheezing but she presses on. Azula has always pressed on. Sometimes, Ty Lee thinks it is this determination at the expense of everything else that was her downfall in the first place.

For a moment, Ty Lee thinks that they will make it to the gate unimpeded. She can almost see it. It is just past the next well, just a few blocks over.

Three Dai Li agents run out of an alley in front of them. One of the men spots them and yells something to the others. Ty Lee cannot hear what. She is already flipping through the air, poised to sink her fingers into the spot behind his shoulder blade.

She is thrown off course when a platform of earth rises from the ground. It catches her in the side and she topples to the street. When she pulls herself back to her feet, Azula is engaged in combat with two of the men. The forms she is running through are familiar, but where they once produced flames, her fists and feet now make contact with the bodies of the Dai Li agents.

The remaining man is approaching her. He squeezes his fists, raises his hands, and the earth rises around her, forming makeshift shackles around her wrists. Behind him, one agent is on the ground. Azula is still on her feet, still fighting the other. A large rock flies through the air and collides with her shoulder, and she stumbles backwards. Ty Lee prays that there will be a way out of this for her. If she can just get past that last man, she can make it to the zoo and into the Agrarian Zone. She is so close.

"How did you get into Ba Sing Se?" the man in front of her is demanding. "Did the Fire Lord assist you? Did the Avatar?"

Ty Lee pulls at the earth entrapping her hands, but all she feels are jagged rocks cutting into her wrists.

"How long have you been here?" the man is still asking. "How many have you tried to recruit to your cause—"

Ty Lee looks up when he breaks off. She is unable to suppress a gasp. Azula is clutching the agent by his hair, forcing him to his knees, a knife—the same one she'd used to make carvings in the table at their apartment—pressed to his neck. Behind her, the bodies of the other two men are sprawled on the street, their limbs outstretched at awkward angles. "Let her go!" she shrieks. She presses the knife more forcefully into the man's neck. "Let her go!"

The man clenches his teeth together. He glances around desperately, as if he is expecting to see allies running toward him. Finally, he squeezes his eyes shut and unclenches his fists. Ty Lee finds her arms suddenly free.

Before she has even had time to catch her breath, the final man is on the ground and Azula is pulling her up by the collar of her shirt. "Come on," she hisses. "Their friends are probably not far."

Ty Lee grips her side as she runs. She can feel something warm and wet under her dress. Still, she pushes herself forward until they are through the gate.

Azula slows to a walk as soon as they are in the zoo. It might be a while before the Dai Li realizes they are no longer in the Lower Ring. They do not want to attract attention and speed up the process. Ty Lee weaves her arms through Azula's elbow as if they are merely friends on a day trip, and they walk straight past habitats with camelephants, eel hounds, and a flying fishopotamus, to the far end of the zoo and directly into a wheat field.

"Now what?" Azula demands as soon as they are under the cover of the crops. "How do you suggest we get to the other side of the wall?"

Ty Lee sighs. The walls is miles away, but even so, it looms over them, reaching into the sky. "I guess we could… try to tunnel under it?" she suggests.

Azula rolls her eyes. "That's ridiculous. We'd never be able to get deep enough before someone saw us. Don't you think I considered that before I decided to run a drill through it?"

Ty Lee's eyes widen. "Azula, you're a genius!"

"I know I am," Azula replies, and Ty Lee rolls her eyes.

"They left the drill there. They just built a wall around the part that's still outside the city."

"So?" Azula crosses her arms.

"So, that wall is shorter," Ty Lee exclaims. "We can get into the drill on this side of the wall, walk to the other end of it, climb out on the other side of the wall, and I bet we'll be able to climb right over that other wall they built."

Azula smirks. "I really am a genius, aren't I?"

"That's what I've been saying all along," Ty Lee answers. "Now, come on. We have a lot of walking to do. And try not to step on too many stalks of wheat. We don't want to leave a trail."

"Where do you propose we go once we're out?" Azula asks during the fifth hour of their walk through the Agrarian Zone. Ty Lee has never seen so much wheat in her life, but she desperately wishes they were trekking through a mango orchard instead. Her stomach has been complaining for an hour. The sharp pain in her side has dulled to an ache, and she thinks the bleeding has stopped.

She shrugs. "I don't know. I guess we can't really stay in the Earth Kingdom, now that Kuei knows you're out." She sighs and shakes her head. "Ba Sing Se was so perfect. It was so big, no one even noticed us. How did they find out we were here? We were so careful."

Behind her, she hears Azula stop. When she turns, the Princess is eyeing the ground, her arms wrapped around her stomach. "Azula?"

"I know how they found us," she whispers. Without notice, she whips back around and begins to march back toward the city. "I'm going to kill him!"

"Azula, who are you talking about?" Ty Lee cries, lunging forward to seize her friend's arm.

Azula is positively seething. "That man," she replies through clenched teeth. "The one I… got the money from when you were sick. He recognized me."

Ty Lee knits her eyebrows together. "But, Azula, that was months ago. If he was going to turn you in, don't you think he would have done it by now."

"No," Azula murmurs. "Not if I was keeping him quiet."

"What do you mean, keeping him quiet?" Ty Lee asks. She does not like the direction this conversation is going at all.

"He found me," Azula explains. "Don't ask me how. And he told me he knew who I was and he would tell the Dai Li if I didn't… come see him again." She takes a breath. "I thought it was over. It was supposed to be over."

The acrobat takes her friend's hand. "Azula, how long has this been going on?"

Azula shrugs, still refusing to raise her eyes to meet Ty Lee's. "Since you got sick. The last time I saw him, I brought this." She produces the knife from her sleeve, and Ty Lee cannot help but think that Mai would be proud. Azula's voice is suddenly escalating, raging. A fire burns in her eyes akin to the one Ty Lee saw as she looked at Mai at the Boiling Rock, just before Ty Lee plunged a knuckle into her shoulder blade. "And when he tried to climb on top of me, I held it to his neck, and I told him if I ever saw him again, or if he breathed a word to anyone about who I was, I would not hesitate to use it." She shakes her head, and the fire disappears just as quickly. "I know that would have brought more Dai Li attention to the Lower Ring, but I just couldn't do it anymore. Obviously he didn't listen anway. I'm sorry, Ty Lee."

Her voice cracks on the second syllable of Ty Lee's name, and she drops the sack and pulls the Princess to her. "Don't apologize," she answers, wrapping her slender arms around Azula's back and laying her head against her shoulder. "Don't you dare. I'm sorry."

"I know how hard you worked to make everything work out," Azula whispers. Under happier circumstances, Ty Lee would marvel at actually getting an apology out of Princess Azula, at having her efforts acknowledged for once, but she does not care at all about any of those things right now. What she cares about is the girl in her arms, whose back is heaving with her effort not to cry.

"Is this why you haven't been eating," Ty Lee asks, her stomach twisting uncomfortably. "And why you cry at night?"

"I don't cry at night," Azula mutters into her shoulder.

"Yes, you do," Ty Lee answers. "I'm usually just pretending to be asleep, Azula."

She hears a long, trembling sigh. "Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she finally asks when Azula's breaths have evened out again. Her friend is silent and Ty Lee nudges her with her should. "Azula, why?"

Her answer is barely a whisper. "I didn't want you to know how weak I was."

Suddenly, Ty Lee is the one trying not to cry, and she is failing miserably at it. "I don't think you're weak." She sniffles as she finally releases the Princess and begins to absently straighten out Azula's dress. "You'll never see him again," she promises. "We'll go somewhere far away."

"I don't see where we have much choice in the matter." Azula begins to walk again. She has slipped back into her businesslike tone. "There's nothing for miles outside the wall. Don't you remember coming here in the drill?"

"Not really," Ty Lee replies slowly. "I was a little busy with other things."

Azula rolls her eyes. "Of course."

"I was thinking maybe we could make it to the United Republic," Ty Lee says. "I know it's kind of far, but at least it's not the Earth Kingdom. If we got recognized there, the Earth King won't be able to swoop in and arrest us on a moment's notice. Zuko and the Avatar might even be able to block us from being extradited."

"That's a big word," Azula comments.

"Three years of being part of the Fire Lord's personal guard," Ty Lee remarks. "I've learned a few things."

"I don't doubt it," Azula answers. "You were always quite intelligent when you wanted to be."

Ty Lee shakes her head at the contradiction and continues on. "We're getting really close to the wall now. We should be able to see the drill… Oh, there it is!" Just over the tops of the wheat stalks, she can see a large, dark mass. "Do you want to spend the night in there?"

Azula sighs. "We shouldn't. There might be guards on top of the wall—there were during the war—and we'll have a lot of empty space to cross on the other side before we reach the tree line. We should do it under the cover of darkness."

The bowls of the drill are eerie. It is very dark and very quiet. They can hear every creak of metal, like deep groans, echoing through the empty space.

"If I had my bending, we would be able to see fine," Azula hisses bitterly as she and Ty Lee feel their way down a corridor.

"Do we just keep going straight?" Ty Lee asks. She is not exactly sure why she is whispering. There is no one else in here. She knows that.

"There will be a staircase up ahead," Azula replies. "Weren't you paying any attention when we were in here before?"

"Not really, no," Ty Lee admits. There had been a very attractive soldier with whom she had taken up during their time in the drill on the way to Ba Sing Se, and, except for when Azula requested her presence on the bridge, she had spent very little time outside of her quarters, but she does not think that right now is the best time to bring that up.

She hears a sigh from behind her. "We need to go up the stairs—just one flight—and then keep going straight until we hit a dead end."

"How far will that be?" Ty Lee asks.

"Not far. We'll be right by the conference room," Azula replies.

Ty Lee swallows. Her lips curl into an embarrassed smile that she knows her companion cannot see. "I have no idea where the conference room is," she answers. "Was I ever even in there?"

"You most certainly were." The Princess almost sounds offended.

Ty Lee feels her shin collide with something, and she nearly falls until she catches herself on a handrail.

"Are you alright?" Azula asks from behind her.

"I'm fine," she answers. "I found the stairs."

The next deck up is not a dark as the first. Ty Lee finds it very odd, because there is nowhere for light to come in.

"Someone is here," Azula hisses, and Ty Lee feels her head being directed toward the other end of the corridor, where a flickering light peaks through a half-opened door. Ty Lee takes a step toward it, but she is stopped by an arm thrown out in front of her.

"What are you doing?" Azula whispers.

"I'm going to go check it out." She pushes the Princess' arm out of the way.

She can hear hushed voices coming from inside the room. There is heat and the smell of something being cooked.

"Bei Long," a woman says in a stern voice. "You had the last one. Give that to your sister."

"But mom," a child's voice answers. "I'm bigger than she is. I need more food."

"You'll both have plenty," the woman replies. "You'll just have to wait for it."

"Azula, it's a family," Ty Lee whispers over her shoulder. Azula is shaking her head back and forth urgently, but Ty Lee disregards her. With a hurried, "It'll be okay," she pushes the door open.

A woman and two young children stare up at them. They all look rather dirty, but well-fed, Ty Lee cannot help but notice. A young girl is holding something that looks like an extremely flat piece of bread, and the boy sitting next to her is chewing guiltily. In the middle, a fire is crackling inside a metal canister that Ty Lee guesses once held coal.

"Who are you?" The woman is on her feet at once, a frying pan gripped in her hand.

"We're not going to hurt you," Ty Lee answers quickly, throwing her hands in the air and nudging Azula until she does the same. "My name is Ty Lee. This is my… Sima." She does not know why she decides not to introduce Azula has her cousin. Suddenly, it feels strange. Inappropriate somehow. Maybe because Azula kissed her at the fountain last night. She can hardly believe it has only been a day. It feels like a lifetime ago. "We're just passing through. We're trying to get to the other side of the wall."

"In or out?" the woman asks.

"Out."

"Good." The woman lowers the frying pan but does not take her eyes off of them. "There's nothing good within those walls. Come. Sit." She gestures to the side of the fire opposite her. Ty Lee takes a careful step into the room, Azula on her tail, and drops to the floor, balancing the sack beside her.

"We're just trying to get out of the city," Ty Lee explains. "And we can't take the train, so we decided to come through the drill and then climb the wall on the other side. You know, since it's shorter."

"That seems—" but the woman is cut off by the door creaking open again. A man and a boy who looks much like the first, but several years older enter the room.

"Kiano," the woman greets. "We have visitors."

"I see that," the man replies. He looks confused, but not really angry. The boy merely looks afraid. They are both carrying baskets, but in the dim light, Ty Lee cannot see what they hold. "What are they doing here?"

"They're trying to get past the wall," the woman explains. "Going out."

"Good," the man answers. He pulls the tattered hat off of his head and tosses it toward the corner of the room. "Well," her grunts, sitting down. "Are you girls staying the night?"

"Oh," Ty Lee gasps as Azula quickly shakes her head. "We really wanted to leave under the cover of nightfall, since it's so empty out there. We don't want the guards to see us."

"That's good thinking," the man replies. "If there were still guards up there. There haven't been since the end of the war. You want to leave when it's light out. Otherwise the coyote hawks might get you. They stalk these deserts at night."

"Are you certain there are no guards?" Azula demands.

The man fixes her with a withering look that Ty Lee imagines Azula has never been on the receiving end of. "We steal food out of fields every day," he replies. "If there were guards up there, we'd have been in prison a long time ago."

"I'll tell you what," the woman says. "You can stay here, eat dinner with us, get a good night's sleep, and in the morning, we'll help you get over the wall."

"What's in it for you?" Azula asks immediately.

The woman shrugs. "Nothing. We have more than enough food, my husband and son always make sure of that, and it's freezing out there at night."

Ty Lee turns to face Azula. "We should consider it," she whispers under her breath. "Who knows when we'll have a solid meal again. Or somewhere warm to sleep."

"We haven't had anywhere warm to sleep since we left the Fire Nation," Azula points out. "I don't trust them. No one offers something without expecting anything in return. What if there's a reward on our heads? They could be waiting for us to fall asleep so they can turn us in."

"Azula, in case you're forgetting, the Dai Li are pretty ruthless," Ty Lee argues. "If this family called them here, they'd probably be arrested for stealing food, reward or not. Besides, how do you expect them to call anyone. We're in the middle of nowhere. It takes hours to get back to the Lower Ring. Sometimes you just have to trust people."

Azula sighs, signaling to Ty Lee that she is not going to argue. Ty Lee turns back around toward the couple. "That sounds great."

They feast on mangos and kiwi and home-baked bread that is a little flat and a little stale, but soothes Ty Lee's aching stomach all the same. Then they curl up in the corner of the room under the quilt and Ty Lee clasps both of Azula's hands in hers. When she wakes up in the middle of the night to soft sobs and ragged breathing, she does not pretend to be asleep. She slides her forehead across the floor until it touches Azula's and she wipes away her companion's tears with her thumbs. When the Princess attempts to duck her head in embarrassment, Ty Lee refuses to let go.

"You'll be okay," she whispers, and she falls back asleep, her palm cupping the base of Azula's jaw, their foreheads still touching.

The next morning, Kiano and his wife, Sella, load fruits into Ty Lee's sack. "You'll have to eat those in a couple days," he tells them. "Or they'll go bad."

Kiano ties a heavy metal pipe from the inside of the drill to the end of a rope, and sets it on the ground. "It's all you, Bomin."

The older boy crouches, tenses the muscles in his shoulders, and a pillar of earth springs from the ground at an angle and launches the pipe over the wall.

"He's not strong enough yet to just lift you right to the top," Kiano explains, clapping his son on the shoulder and smiling benignly down at him. "But he's getting there." Azula's eyebrows turn up in the center, and Ty Lee suspects she is remembering her own firebending training. Ty Lee does not know much about Azula's training, she and Mai had always had to leave so that the Princess would not be distracted, but she does know that passing up her older brother was not good enough. Conjuring lightning at the age of eleven was not good enough. Perfect was not good enough.

Kiano tugs on the end of the rope. "There you go," he tells them as he hands it to Ty Lee. "Bomin can launch your bag over if you don't want to carry it."

"Thank you," Ty Lee turns so that she is looking at the entire family, "for everything."

"Don't mention it," Sella replies. "We hope you girls find whatever it is you're looking for."

"We wish we knew what we were looking for," Ty Lee mutters to Azula, but the joke does not earn a smile.

"You want to go left when you're on the other side," Kiano explains. "If you go right, it's desert for miles and miles and then it's mountains. You'd have to walk for a month to find anybody."

"Amazing," Azula grumbles scathingly.

"You'll come across some plains," he continues. "And then you'll find a river. You'll want to follow the river. That's sure to take you to a town."

"Thank you, Kiano!" Ty Lee calls once again as she grips the rope and begins to hoist herself up the wall. Azula follows close behind her, and, all in all, the experience does not take nearly as long as she expects it to.

"I can't believe this," Azula mumbles once she drops to the ground on the outside of the wall. "I'm accepting help from earthbenders now. What's next? Waterbenders?"

"You made it perfectly clear yesterday morning that you can still take down an earthbender if you need to," Ty Lee replies, rolling her eyes. She picks up the sack and pulls it over her shoulder. "Well," she sighs, gazing up at the wall. "Say goodbye to Ba Sing Se."

"Goodbye, Ba Sing Se." Azula is already trotting off toward the nearly-invisible tree line. "I'm not sorry to say I won't miss it."

Ty Lee wonders what Wu Ling is doing right now. Hopefully, in their haste to catch up to her and Azula, they left him alone. Ty Lee pushes the thought from her mind as she hurries to catch up to her companion.

"I never thanked you," she calls after her.

Azula does not turn around. "Thank me for what?"

"For rescuing me yesterday, of course," Ty Lee explains as if it should have been obvious.

"Why would you thank me for that?" Azula questions.

Ty Lee shrugs. "I just wasn't sure you would. I thought you might keep going. I hoped you would, actually."

Azula looks over at her, her face etched with surprise. "You thought I would leave you?"

"Well, yeah," Ty Lee answers. "I mean, you're the one who might get executed if they find you. I've been pardoned, remember?"

"For your war crimes," Azula reminds her. "Not for assisting me."

"Yeah, but the Earth King wasn't going to have me killed just for helping you. Besides," Ty Lee adds. "You wouldn't have saved me before. Not if it jeopardized your mission."

"It's a good thing this isn't before then, isn't it?" Azula replies. "I would be lying if I said you weren't important to me." She adds airily. "I thought that should have been clear by now."

"Thank you, Azula!" Ty Lee cries, throwing her arms around her friend. "You mean a lot to me too!"

"Yes, I know," she answers with a smirk. "I hope you didn't think that was a secret."

A/N: So there's the transition I've been promising for like, two weeks now.

So, I posted the last chapter at 8:30 AM Eastern Standard Time, and then I went to class for fifty-five minutes, and when I came back, I had seven reviews. I don't know where you guys all live, but those of you in the Americas, I'm not sure what you were doing awake and reading fanfiction at that time of the morning, but I'm very impressed. We have here another chapter that I'm not really expecting only good reviews for, but even those of you who criticized Chapter 7 did so very politely, and that's all I ask.

In preview: The next few chapters are a lot of plot stuff, but there is also some really good character stuff. I can't really go into any detail without getting spoilery.