"All day war meeting, huh?" asked a voice as Azula walked back to the wing of the palace hosting her family's bedrooms and their private parlors and offices.

"Who let you in?" Azula purred with a hint of mockery in her tone.

She was met by lips on her cheek, a greeting Azula learned was customary for romantic couples. Azula moved to kiss Ty Lee on the lips, but she stepped away.

"I am super bored. Mai was super bored too, but she's always super bored. Anyway, she had to go to some family thing or something so now I'm here alone and hi it's nice to see you," Ty Lee said rapidly and Azula could only nod slowly.

"I am very tired," Azula said softly, shutting the door of the parlor and walking to the sofa. She settled down, reclining in the same manner she sat upon thrones.

"So, what was the war meeting about?" Ty Lee asked lightly, batting her eyelashes. Azula simply crossed her legs with a smug smirk of superiority.

"Well, I think telling you could be considered treason," Azula purred and Ty Lee pouted her lips. "But, given the fact that you were instrumental in the fall of Ba Sing Se, I think I will make an exception. It isn't as if father can argue; I might as well have run that meeting."

Ty Lee moved towards Azula, hesitated about what to do, and then sat directly on her lap, facing her. The princess had a slight jolted expression in her eyes, but she managed to control it before she genuinely showed shock or discomfort.

Azula, with slight hesitation, set her hands on Ty Lee's hips.

"Alright, I'm listening really intently now," Ty Lee said, narrowing her eyes in an expression she thought made her look smarter. Azula suppressed her laughter and kept her eyes and lips icy.

"Well, now I'm slightly distracted," Azula said, one of her dark eyebrows raised. "There's the eclipse of course. Now that's boring. It isn't as if their invasion will do very well since we, well, defeated all of their armies."

"And without the Avatar," Ty Lee continued and Azula simply made a hmming sound. "What? What?"

"Nothing at all," Azula said with such honesty in her tone that Ty Lee believed her. She knew very well that the princess liked to mess with people, string them along and perpetually conceal information for what Ty Lee supposed was just fun. "Yes, without the Avatar, we're just going to hold out on that. And then when the comet comes, we're going to burn everything to the ground."

Ty Lee sank slightly, her body no longer tensed and pressed against Azula. "Burn... everything."

"Everything. And just start over. It's nice. It's kind of refreshing. You know that wildfires exist for a reason. They burn the forest so the old rot and trees will die and then the new seeds will sprout," Azula said softly and Ty Lee found it far too poetic. "And sometimes nature just needs a little push."

"And then what? After the war. I mean, once you burn everything to the ground it's not like there's a war anymore," Ty Lee said and Azula realized Ty Lee's concerned expression was not about the effects of razing the Earth Kingdom; she was asking about their... whatever this was. Relationship?

"You did say that after Sozin's Comet, we would be lovers."

"With two eventual children, yes. No promises," Azula breathed and Ty Lee poked her in the arm, but the reverberating sensation through her arm made her shriek. "You can't do that. That's an executable offense if there ever was one."

"I didn't even block your chi," Ty Lee whined and Azula realized she should do something about her overconfidence. It could only lead to trouble down the line. She should have never admitted that she wanted something more with Ty Lee, and now she had to face the repercussions of her actions.

"Alright, I'm sure there's nothing in the lawbooks about poking royalty in pressure points as a form of coercion, but I think we can assume that it's some form of treason," Azula said, but she was laughing very faintly.

She thought about, for a moment, how she spent her life being honed into a weapon. Azula was bred for the purpose of conquest. And people treated her as a deadly force. People treated her as they treated lightning. But Ty Lee seemed to... be like a real friend.

Together, Azula did not feel like a princess or her father's burning blue blade. She felt just like an ordinary teenage girl.

And that, Azula realized as Ty Lee pressed her lips against Azula's, was not terrible.

It was strangely relieving, in a way Azula would have never believed if someone told her three months ago.