A/N: HOLY CRAP. Why didn't anyone tell me that Ty Lee's name didn't have a hyphen? xD. *just went through and fixed every chapter.* I saw her name in the credits after I saw an episode on the ntoons channel!
The Palace
Ty Lee looked at her best friend with terrified eyes. They were standing in front of a pair of heavy wooden doors, flanked by two imperial fire benders. One of the benders pulled the huge door open for the girls, then bowed and motioned them in.
"I guess they knew we were coming," she whispered to Mai and stepped out of the long stone entrance way of the palace and into a bright hallway.
"Of course they knew… Wow, this place is creepy," Mai said quietly, afraid that her voice would echo. The girls heard the door close softly behind them, and silence descended, all sounds muffled. Ty Lee agreed with the creepiness, taking in their surroundings: a large entrance hall with high ceilings supported by towering pillars, and marble floors that reflected the light of paper lanterns hung along the walls. Everything was decorated in the traditional colors of the Fire Nation: red, gold and black, which gave the palace an intimidating, regal feeling.
"I wonder where Azula is," Ty Lee said, loud and perky, her voice reverberating around them; she was very excited to be in the palace, even if it was a little bit haunting. It had taken almost an entire school year of games with Azula during their breaks before she had invited them to play on the weekend. Ty Lee took it as a sign that she had finally made a second friend and had happily accepted.
She skipped up to another pair of double doors at the end of the hall, both of which were open, while Mai hurried along behind her and they found themselves in another large room. This one had gold painted walls lined with portraits of past FireLords.
"Wow," Ty-Lee breathed. Each painting was at least 10 feet tall.
"Maybe we should ask someone?" Mai asked, squinting to see the details of FireLord Zirat's robes, "We probably shouldn't just wander around here."
"There isn't really anyone to ask," she replied, skipping around a corner and leading Mai into a much less grand hallway, with paper walls along one side. Ty Lee leaned up close to the wall, examining the scenes painted across it. She could see delicate mountains, tiny houses, a painted city, and little brush strokes that, through the talent of the artist, were shaped like people.
"Look at this, Mai!" She said pointing to a little brushed maiden holding a parasol beside the palace, but both girls jumped when one of the intricately painted paper doors slid open to reveal a tall, elegant woman.
"Arjun?" She called, looking distracted before her gold eyes landed on the two girls in front of her. "You must be Mai and Ty Lee," she said with a smile. The girls nodded and Ty Lee felt herself relax at the woman's kind expression, but she still felt it best to follow Mai's lead and bow. "Did you see anyone go by here?" She asked.
The girls shook their heads and woman sighed. "I'll find him later, then. My daughter is playing in the garden, I'll take you there," she smiled again and gestured for them to follow her down the hall. Lady Ursa, Ty Lee realized. She was Azula's mother and married to Prince Ozai; she was a princess and Ty Lee was now very glad she'd bowed.
As they reached the end of the hall the sound of screams and shouts floated through the thin paper walls. Ursa frowned as she slid the panel open, to reveal a wooden path through a large, flawlessly designed garden. Ty Lee spotted Azula in the grass under the shade of a large, blooming tree beside a small pond, but she wasn't so much playing as kicking a boy in the in the leg while he tried to pull a toy Fire Navy ship out of her hand.
"It's mine!' The boy yelled as the two of them rolled along the ground, their kicks and punches punctuated with small bursts of flame.
"That must be Prince Zuko," Mai whispered to Ty Lee, who realized Mai was probably right. It was common knowledge that Azula had an older brother, so who else would he be?
"Mom said you had to share with me!" She clutched the wooden toy with both hands and tried to get an angle to kick him in the stomach.
Ty Lee looked at Mai, both of them feeling awkward, but Ursa had already made her way across the garden, "Spirits, I can't leave you two alone for a minute can I!" she said, reaching down and wrenching the toy out of both of her children's hands.
Lady Ursa put her hands on her hips and glared down at the kids, exactly the way Ty Lee's own mother did. Azula and her brother froze instantly at the sound of their mother's voice. They stood slowly, both covered in dirt and grass.
"Mom! He wouldn't let me play with the ship!" Azula started.
Zuko chimed in an instant later, "It's mine, she has her own toys!" But Ursa held up her hand to silence her children.
"You have guests over Azula, is this any way to behave?" Azula looked around her mother to see her two friends from school, and then back at Ursa. Ty Lee could swear she saw Azula's cheeks become a light shade of pink. "Ask your brother before you use his toys, if he says no then that's that." Azula's lips pursed, and Zuko smirked at her. "And Zuko, you need to share if your sister asks nicely," the smirk instantly changed to a pout. "Alright?"
"Yes, Mother," they chorused. Ursa handed the ship back to Zuko who exchanged angry glares with his sister, glanced at Mai and Ty Lee and stomped back inside. Ty Lee could hear the prince mumbling about how unfair it was as he passed her.
"Now, I'm going to go find Arjun, then finish my letter, I'll be inside. You girls have fun, alright?" Ursa said, smiling at Mai and Ty Lee, before patting her daughter on the shoulder. The girls both thanked her and bowed one more time as Ursa made her way back into the palace.
Azula had her arms crossed over her chest, her eyebrows knit angrily and her bottom lip extended in a pout.
"So..." Mai said monotonically, "You have a lovely home." It brought back memories of Ty Lee's countless etiquette lessons from her mother and she cursed herself for forgetting to give a compliment or thank Azula for inviting her.
"Really? That's weird, I had no idea." Azula snapped. The corner of Mai's lip twitched by she didn't respond.
Ty Lee wasn't sure what else to do, but she did remember one thing she'd been meaning to ask Azula about, and now it seemed like the perfect distraction from her friend's anger, Better than watching her and Mai fight, Ty Lee thought.
"Is it true there's a secret tunnel from the palace that leads out of the city?" She asked brightly. Mai turned to look at her in shock, but she had managed to successfully distract Azula.
"Uh, I don't know," the princess said, a thoughtful look on her face, "Mrs. Cheng said something about it in school though, didn't she?"
"Yeah, she said it was so the royal family could get out in an emergency" Ty Lee had actually been paying attention that day, "We should try and find it! Right Mai?" The quiet girl shifted her weight onto one of her feet, her arms crossed with a bored look on her face. Mai claimed she only agreed to go play with Azula at the palace because Ty Lee wanted her to. She knew that Mai didn't really like Azula, but she also knew that her friend wanted to see the inside of the palace as much as she did.
Now, Mai gave a noncommittal kind of shrug, and they both glanced to the princess, "Sure," Azula said, her normal arrogant tone returning, "But if it was to protect the royal family in case of an attack it would have been near the center of the palace. Come on!" She motioned for the other girls to follow her inside through one of the side doors.
For a while, they actually tried to think logically about where such a tunnel could be hidden, all three hoping that they could find a secret way out of the city. Eventually, though, their search devolved into a game where the palace was under attack and they had to fight their way out. After hours of wandering through random hallways and pushing on wall panels, followed by kicking at the air and rolling around corners, they still never found any secret tunnels. The girls eventually gave up, ending up in the garden where they started.
Mai lay on her back watching the sky slowly turn orange, while Ty Lee tried to teach Azula a game that she played with her sisters.
"Okay, so hold your hands out flat, like this," Ty Lee gestured and Azula copied her. "Then I put my hands over yours, like this."
"Oookay," Azula looked at Ty Lee blankly.
"Then you try and hit the top of my hands before I move mine away."
"When? Do you say 'go' or something?"
"No, you just do it. If I knew when you were going to go the game would be too easy," Ty Lee almost laughed.
The princess looked unsure, but before Ty Lee noticed her move, Azula had slapped the top of her hands. "How was that supposed to be fun?" Azula asked.
"Uhm, it's not usually so easy. Let's switch. I'll try and hit you this time," Ty Lee frowned; usually she was very good at that game. But her luck didn't improve. She tried time and time again to hit Azula, who would jerk her hands away but by the time Mai sat up, Ty Lee was giggling along with the princess.
"I think-," Mai started to say, but one of the sliding doors opened and Zuko peeked his head out.
"Azula? Did I leave that wooden sword out here?" The prince seemed to have already forgotten about the fight. "Oh, hi," he said at the sight of his sister's friends.
"Hi," they chorused, Ty Lee cheerfully, and Mai significantly less so.
"I haven't seen it. Maybe you should check your room again," Azula replied sweetly, as Ty Lee missed her hands again.
Zuko groaned, "I might have left it at Xiu's…" he mumbled as he slid the door shut.
Azula turned to check if her brother was gone, then leaned forward and whispered to Ty Lee, "I have it," followed by a devious grin. Ty-Lee couldn't help but giggle. She knew that she wasn't supposed to support the stealing of toys amongst siblings, but she remembered of the times she had taken something from her sisters without asking them; so she knew she wasn't exactly one to talk.
"Like I was saying," Mai was frowning more than usual when she interrupted the other girls, "I think I'm going to go home."
"Awwwh," Did Mai really have to leave already? Ty Lee pouted. The day had been so much fun.
"Bye, Mai!" Azula smiled in what would normally have been a warm way, but like many of the princess' smiles, it didn't seem to reach her eyes. There was something else in Mai's face, besides boredom. An emotionless mask that six year old Ty Lee hadn't quite learned to distinguish from her friend's other emotionless masks. She said goodbye, confused, but a light bulb went on in the girl's head when, as Mai left the garden, she let her hair bangs hang over her eyes.
Mai was sad. Ty Lee instantly felt guilty. Of course she would be sad; Ty Lee was her best friend and she had spent the whole day playing and having fun with a girl that Mai didn't even like, while the quieter girl had been left on the wayside. Ty Lee could still remember sitting in the courtyard at Mai's house, right after she had met Azula.
"She's not even nice; did you notice how she didn't have any friends until we let her play with us?" Mai had said.
"She did so. Almost everyone wants to be her friend."
"Yeah, but only because she's a princess. No one would even talk to her if she wasn't."
Ty Lee realized that Mai was right. Those girls all wanted to be Azula's friend, but all of them had seemed scared of her; they did everything she said and always made sure to let her win. Even Mrs. Cheng avoided scolding her.
Of course, Mai couldn't refuse to go when Azula invited her over; an 'invitation' from a member of the royal family to a governor's daughter was essentially a command, so she had stood by, halfheartedly playing along with their games. Ty Lee sighed but then realized that the princess was giving her a questioning look.
"Are you okay?" Azula asked, giving Ty Lee that look that said she thought she was nuts.
"Yeah, I was just thinking,"
"Did it hurt?" Azula asked, with a smirk. Déjà vu; Ty Lee could remember Mai saying those exact words, but her new friend's expression didn't have any of the teasing or warmness that Mai's had.
"I'm not stupid," she muttered. Azula really isn't nice, Ty Lee realized, looking down at her hands as she tried to stop her eyes from watering. But her opinion of the princess didn't last long.
Azula's face changed to sympathetic in an instant, and Ty Lee thought she might even look regretful, "I'm sorry, Ty Lee. I was just joking; I don't think you're stupid," Azula leaned over to meet her eyes she nodded.
"Girls? It's getting late, I think it's time for Ty Lee to go home now," Ursa's voice came from the door; it had opened without either girl realizing. The sun had indeed set, and Ty Lee stood, dusting herself off.
"Do you want me to bring that scroll to school for you tomorrow, so you can borrow it?" Azula asked, still looking uneasy.
"Sure, thanks Princess!" Ty Lee remembered the fortune telling scroll she had found in the library while they were searching for secret passages, and signature smile returned. She quickly hugged Azula before skipping through the door that Ursa held open for her.
Maybe she isn't so bad, Ty Lee thought, smiling as one of the imperial fire bender's escorted her home.
A/N: It may seem OOC for Azula to apologize, but I remembered when she made Ty Lee cry on Ember island and then instantly apologized and told her she was jealous. It was a weird move, but it happened in the show so it can happen in my fanfiction! xD