Hello everyone. Thanks for your patience. Here is chapter 12.
I do not own ATLA.
The palace gardens were ablaze.
Or so it seemed.
It was high summer in the Fire Nation and the fire lilies were in full bloom. The vivid red-petaled and golden-throated fire lilies dancing in the light breeze gave the semblance of flames shimmering in every flower bed. The fire lilies' signature scent of smokey cinnamon only added to the illusion.
Ty Lee walked through the Fire Nation's most spectacular, natural magic trick without so much as a wayward glance at her favorite flowers. She had been summoned to an afternoon tea with the Fire Lady.
There had been a time when the thought of a tea party in the royal gardens in the middle of fire lily season would have sent the acrobat racing and tumbling toward her friend, but that time had withered and died. And so the put-upon tumbler marched toward her appointment with the Fire Nation royal, eyes down and heart even lower.
Mai hid her hands in her sleeves and settled deeper into her cushion as she watched her one-time friend approach the gracious spread on the low table. Her lips pursed even tighter as she took in the slumped shoulders, downcast eyes, and wringing hands of her normally jovial companion. Apparently visiting Azula in the asylum had been taking its toll on the smaller woman. Perhaps this wasn't as good a plan as she had thought.
Ty Lee's eyes reached the table and she instinctively knelt. She heard an exasperated sigh even as she continued to study the grass.
"Of all the people who were going to treat me different because of my title I thought you would be the last to do so. Well if you are fool enough to kneel in front of a friend, then you are fool enough to get up without me instructing you to do so."
Ty Lee couldn't help but smile as she rose to take the cushion opposite the square table from Mai.
"Sorry, but Azula always said it was better to be respectful of power than to be burnt for insolence."
Mai raised an eyebrow, "Do you think I'd ever burn you?"
Ty Lee laughed, "Of course not, Mai! You're my friend!"
Mai let a small smile play on her lips. This was the Ty Lee she was use to: the bright-eyed, over-eager friend. The defeated and slumped Ty Lee was a different story, but it seemed that she was gone for now as Ty tore into one of the many biscuits on the table.
"Sho whaf bib you wamma chalk abu?" Ty Lee tried to get Mai's attention through a mouth-full of biscuit.
"You do know you are a noble and were taught table-manners, correct?" Mai's smirk negated the reproach in her words.
Ty Lee swallowed the biscuit in one gulp and wiped her mouth on the back of her Kyoshi warrior robe sleeve before she tried again.
"So what did you want to talk about?"
Mai poured three steaming mugs of tea. One for each herself, Ty, and a third for the tardy member of their party.
"We will have to wait for Suki before we start to really discuss the matter at hand, but since she is late I guess we could chat like the old friends we are."
Ty Lee laughed so hard that the hot tea she had begun to sip on poured out of her nose. Even after she managed to clean up the mess she continued to giggle to herself. Finally Mai couldn't take it anymore.
"What is so funny?"
Ty Lee wrapped her arms around her torso and tried to calm down enough to answer. Finally she managed to contain herself enough to look at the Fire Nation royal with a watery-smile, "It's just you are too adorably awkward when you try to 'chat'. I don't know how I managed to befriend two of the worst small-talkers in the Fire Nation."
Mai's eyebrows raised in genuine shock, "Are you suggesting that I am as bad at trivial talking as Azula was? Don't you remember that Chad guy from Ember Isle? She thought world domination was a proper flirtation topic."
"Yep, I remember that, but you seem to be forgetting about Lee."
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
A rare burning blush on the Fire Lady's cheeks said otherwise.
Ty Lee took the lingering red blotches as an opportunity to embarrass her seldom abashed friend.
With a mischievous glint in her eye Ty poured herself another cup of tea and began to nonchalantly remind Mai of her most socially awkward moment, "Oh come on Mai! I know you remember Lee. Admiral Shizou's eldest son, wasn't he? Handsomest noble bachelor at the time Azula introduced you to him at court. Azula said you should stop mobbing over Zuko's banishment and get back in the dating game. She did always underestimate how hard it was to control your heart, but I think she was really worried about you, don't you think?"
Mai's blank face gave Ty no answer, so she took a sip of her tea and continued on her mission.
"Anyways, she cornered you two in the garden." Ty Lee paused and looked around herself before she continued, "Actually I think it might have been this exact garden. That looks like the tree you accidentally pinned poor Lee to."
"He was the one that asked if I had any hobbies." Mai growled.
Ty Lee chuckled and replied, "I don't think he was expecting you to say that you enjoyed throwing pointy objects at targets while blindfolded." Ty paused her chuckling to tap her chin and wonder aloud: "I can't quite remember how he ended up in front of that tree with you throwing knives at him though."
Mai was bristling by the time she answered Ty's implied question, "You suggested that I show him my skills and Azula said he wouldn't be much of a Fire Nation nobleman if he didn't volunteer to hold a target up for me."
"Hahahaha! That's right! Poor proud Lee! You know I heard that he goes around telling all the young ladies at court that he got that scar on his arm while saving a baby from a run-away komodo-rhino."
"He does no such thing...right?"
"My hand to Agni!"
Mai's incredulous scowl pushed the acrobat over the edge and she broke down into hysterical laughter. Mai's scowl turned into a small smile and, as Ty's laughter continued to shake her stout body, finally she too began to laugh.
Suki exited the stone archway and stepped into the garden a few minutes later. The sight that greeted her eyes when she reached the low tea table made her rub her eyes sleepily. She had to get some sleep soon because she was definitely hallucinating.
There at the table was an undignified Fire Lady laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face, and across from her was an acrobat rolling on the ground in hysterics.
With fists on cocked hips Suki addressed her giggling friends, "What's all this about?"
Surprisingly a struggling Ty Lee was the first to control the giggles enough to answer her captain.
She strove to raise herself back into a sitting position as Mai's body sagged into the table. When she had managed to reach the table, she stilled the giggles with a heavy exhale and faced her leader. With a politely serious smile on her face, Ty Lee got one word out before she collapsed onto the table in another fit of giggles, "Lee."
With a roar of laughter the Fire Lady fell back onto her cushion.
Suki's fists slipped from her hips to hang loosely along with her jaw. She expected this sort of behavior from Ty Lee. After all she was her most...energetic warrior, but Fire Lady Mai? She thought coaxing a smile from the normally placid women was a feat. Now here she was bowled-over in laughter by a single word from the acrobat. Suki shook her head. There was only one explanation for this: Ty Lee.
Finally Mai started to regain control over herself. It had been ages since the last time she had had a legitimate laughing fit. She had forgotten how good it was to lose control, but there were things to discuss. All good things had to end.
The Fire Lady sat up and adjusted her robes. With a small smile still playing on her lips she motioned with her hand for Suki to join them at the table.
"My apologies, Captain Suki. Ty Lee and I were just reliving some old memories."
Suki just smiled back at Mai and said, "Those must be some good memories."
"They are." Ty Lee affirmed her captain's assumption as she pulled herself back to the table.
"You'll have to tell me about them sometime."
"Well you see that tree over there..."
"I don't believe Suki meant right this moment Ty." Mai cut her friend off before she could embarrass the monarch. "Besides we have things to discuss now that all of us are here."
The acrobat just shrugged her shoulders and reached for her second biscuit. They had been flavored with rare cinnamon pepper flakes: a Fire Nation speciality and a favored flavor of Ty Lee's childhood. But there had been something about the first biscuit's taste that had the back of her head nagging at her. There was something more to the burning sensation than a mere childhood favorite flavor.
Ty Lee took a bite of the biscuit in her hand, while Suki and Mai exchanged pleasantries. The nagging voice suddenly became too clear as she bit into a whole flake. With shaking hand, the acrobat placed the remnants of the biscuit on the clinking china plate.
Both Suki and Mai noticed Ty's sudden change in demeanor.
Mai took one look at the acrobat's unnaturally pale face, downturned mouth, and hunched shoulders and decided that nothing would be gleaned in troubling the girl further.
Suki on the other hand couldn't help but to ask, "What's the matter Ty?"
A too-wide smile split the acrobat's face open as she answered her captain, "Nothing's the matter! I just bit into a really spicy flake. I suggest you stay away from those biscuits. You know what Fire Nation food does to you."
Suki looked at Mai who merely shrugged her shoulders. And so Suki continued to regale the Fire Lady with Sokka's latest cactus juice hijinks.
Ty Lee let out a quiet sigh of relief. They had bought her story. Ty wasn't sure what she would have done if Suki had pressed the issue. How was she suppose to tell two of her best friends in the whole world that Azula's lips tasted like cinnamon pepper flakes when they had kissed all those years ago? How could she describe to them the immense sadness she had felt when she had realized that she had forgotten the exact taste of her Princess' kisses? How could she explain to them her desire to run her tongue along Azula's lips to collect her almost painfully, spicy sweet flavor so she would never forget it again?
As Suki and Mai smiled lightly over their cups of tea, Ty Lee knew it was no use trying to explain her passionate feelings. Sometimes no matter how beautiful or numerous the words, they just can't quite cover the entirety a feeling. Besides Ty Lee was a small-talker, not an orator.
The acrobat rolled her neck back to keep it limber. When her eyes meet the cloudless sky she winced. The sun was a lot lower than she had thought it would be. The tea party had been a nice distraction, but if she was going to get back to Azula in time to share a supper with her she was going to need to leave soon.
She rolled her head back down to face her friends and with a slight clearing of her throat she addressed them, "So guys this has been real nice and all, but I have to be leaving soon. I figured there was a reason that Mai called us together because honestly the tea party thing isn't really your thing, you know? So I was wondering if we could get to it?"
Suki and Mai turned to look at the expectant acrobat. Something was up with the little tumbler and they both knew it.
Suki reached for Ty's hand as she asked again, "What's the matter Ty? It's not like you to pass up a chat in order to get down to business. Whatever it is you can tell us."
Ty squeezed her captain's hand gently and placed it back on the table before she answered, "It's really nothing, Suki. I just want to get back to Azula before supper is over."
"And how are the visits going?" Mai gauged her friend's reaction to her question over the rim of her teacup.
The fake smile Ty cracked was painfully obvious to Mai and Suki alike.
"Well it's only been a week..."
Clink!
The sharp sound of china against china interrupted the acrobat as the Fire Lady indelicately set her teacup back on its saucer.
"Forgive me, Ty, but are you saying that she's still cursing your ancestors for giving birth to such a traitor?"
Ty gulped air down her suddenly tight throat. She couldn't quite place why she felt that Mai was disappointed, but she knew that the Fire Lady definitely was.
"Well not everyday. Sometimes she seems to enjoy my company."
Suki looked from her nervous subordinate to her glowering friend and back again. She felt that she was missing something, and she would get to the bottom of what she assumed was another Fire Nation royal scheme eventually. However right now she needed to back her warrior.
"I'm sure she appreciates your company, Ty Lee."
Suki was rewarded with a genuine Ty Lee smile and a Mai glare for her efforts.
"What's the matter with you, Mai? Surely you couldn't dream to hope for anything better than what Ty Lee is already doing for Azula."
Mai put her hands into her voluminous sleeves and thoughtfully stroked her knives before replying, "Well they've always had such an...unique relationship I just assumed more progress would have been made by now."
"Progress?" Ty Lee's eyes were full of confusion.
Suki's eyes on the other hand were full of suspicion. "What's all this really about, Mai?"
Mai knew she had to play this right if she was going to get Suki on her side with this plan. The political side of Mai's brain knew it was a bad idea to make one person's decisions the focus of two plans, but there was no other practical way around it. The Fire Lady hated to play games with friends, but the potential future of her country rested on her friend's abilities to play along with her.
"Well this is actually what I had hoped to discuss with the two of you today. Zuko and I want very much to conditionally release Azula."
Ty Lee's heart jumped into her throat. "Release?"
"What are these...conditions?"
Mai's face remained passive even as she frowned inside her mind. It did not bode well that Suki had managed to latch onto the more important word even if the idea of releasing Azula under any terms was enough to make less politically astute people focus on that instead. Maybe Mai had bitten off more than she could chew.
"They are merely safety precautions to make sure that Azula doesn't hurt others or herself. Most of it is nit-picky political reassurances. Things that really don't need to bother you. However there is one condition that will especially affect both of you."
Suki's eyes narrowed into slits before she asked, "What is this special condition?"
"Well we can't leave Azula unsupervised. She's just too dangerous. However I think that keeping her under heavy guard at all times will exacerbate her condition. We want her to get better, not worse. So Zuko and I put our heads together and came up with a solution that we think all parties would agree to. If you could see it in your heart to spare her, then we would want Ty Lee to be Azula's personal guard. You can't deny that she is the best person for the job."
Suki pinched the bridge of her nose. She should have seen this one coming. She wasn't sure what exactly Mai was trying to pull, but she didn't like the idea of Ty being stuck with this duty. It was obvious that this week had taken its toll on the girl and it was Suki's job to protect her warriors, even from themselves.
"I don't think this is a good idea..." Suki began before a tiny voice cut her off.
"Please Suki."
Suki and Mai turned to look at the origins of that tiny, pleading voice. They had been so busy playing mind games that they had forgotten that Ty Lee was still there.
"Please Suki." Ty Lee repeated herself before explaining, "I've loved being a Kyoshi Warrior. This past year has been amazing. I couldn't ask for better friends than you and the other warriors. You all opened your homes to and shared your most sacred traditions with me. For all of this I will always be thankful, but I have to do this now. I wouldn't be a true Kyoshi Warrior if I let my friend suffer anyways. So I guess I'm asking if I could respectfully resign from the Kyoshi Warriors? Please Suki?"
"No."
Ty Lee's body collapsed in on itself.
"You can't quit the Kyoshi Warriors. You will always be our sister. However..." Suki paused until Ty looked up to see the smile playing on her lips, "I think maybe we can take you off the duty rooster. Feel free to do whatever you have to in order to help your friend. Just remember we are here any time you need us."
With a squeal, the understandably grateful acrobat had her arms wrapped around her amazing leader in a bone-crushing hug.
"Thank you, Suki! You have no idea how much this means to me!"
"Ty I think the good captain would like to breathe now." A slightly amused Mai pointed out.
Ty Lee abashedly released her captain and looked at her Fire Lady.
Once Suki got the breath back in her lungs she asked, "So when will Azula be released?"
"We were thinking a week's time would work."
"A week! Don't you think that's a bit soon?"
If Mai was being honest she thought it was a little rushed herself. But if Azula was going to become a useful political puppet in time for the Fire Colonies talk, then she would have to reintroduced to the court as soon as possible. This was all so dangerous, but if they didn't risk it they could lose everything.
"We've been in talks with her healers and they all agree that as long as she is under constant, careful supervision she should be fine. In fact, some of the healers think she might even heal quicker on the outside."
Ty Lee smiled to herself. In a week Azula would be out of that dingy cell and in the fresh air. After over a year in that...facility she would be free at last. It could be hard for the princess, but Ty Lee would make it as easy on her as possible. It was all too good to be true.
Ty Lee stood up while Suki and Mai continued to talk. She made a hasty bow to each of her friends and dashed away from the table with a hasty apology thrown over her shoulder, "Sorry guys, but I gotta go tell 'Zula the great news!"
For a second they watched their friend's figure rapidly disappear down a garden path, eyes wide with surprise.
Mai snapped out of her shock first and turned to her remaining friend, "More tea?"
Suki shook her head in the negative, "No, I have to get back to my girls and break the news of Ty Lee's extended leave of absence."
Mai shrugged and sipped her tea as Suki rose from the table.
Suki dropped a short bow, which Mai immediately waved off. She turned from the table and took a step before turning around to address the Fire Lady one last time before she left, "There is one thing I feel I should say before I go."
Mai looked up with interest in her eyes, "Yes?"
Suki narrowed her eyes at Mai and dropped her voice, "If you are playing some sort of game and Ty Lee gets hurt I will no longer trust you. And I don't ally with people I don't trust."
"Naturally, but I just want to assure you that I am not out to play games with Ty Lee. She is my friend.
Suki had no reason to doubt the Fire Lady so with a nod she left.
Mai finished off her tea as she watched the Kyoshi captain dissolve into the green scenery of the garden. When the Fire Lady's sharp eyes could no longer distinguish the green robes from the green bushes, she gently placed her teacup down on her saucer and lightly ran her finger along the petals of the painted fire lily motif.
She had definitely bitten off more than she could chew this time.
Thanks for reading everyone. I actually had a lot of free time this weekend (read: I put off another paper) so Chapter 13 should be up really soon. I really appreciate you guys and your comments even if it might seem like I don't write very often. Work and school get in the way of wants sometimes. Sorry.
-Watevs15
