A/N: Hey again! Here's another FM! Oh, and just so you all know:: This is a real life event, I just changed up a little. Soo, here it is! Enjoy! Review! Live! LOL! JK. CHYESS, IT'S OFFICIALLY CHAPTER 21!! I'M SO PROUD! THANK YOU GUYS FOR LETTING ME GO THIS FAR!! Oh, and just so you know:: THIS IS IMPORTANT TO THE CHAPTER! The italics is a FLASHBACK! I think I wrote it in here, anyway..haha. Hunter originally gave me the idea to write something like this, so I changed a few things, and originated some ideas.
Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA.
Inspiration: Ah, here it is again. Well, seeing as it's a real life event, life and music. Hehe. ; )
ENJOY!(:
–
The gaang sat around a campfire late at night, reminiscing about early childhood memories. Almost like when Mai was at the beach with Zuko, Azula, and Ty Lee, but these were funnier, and more importantly, without the evil one who brought about the war.
"So, who wants to go first?" Aang asked, not willing to spill quite yet.
"I will, I guess!" Sokka said, arms in the air.
"Okay," Aang said.
"I can't wait to hear this," Katara and Suki muttered at the same time, laughing together.
The fire was in the middle, and Aang sat directly in front of it. On his right was Katara, then Suki, then Sokka, then Zuko, Mai, then Ty Lee, Iroh, and Toph was next to him and on the left of Aang.
They formed a circle.
The cool breeze relaxed and cooled them down a bit. It was a warm night, no one even needed a sweatshirt.
"Okay. So one late night in the Water Tribe, I was sitting up in my 'bed'. It was really just a sack of flour, but it was, heck, very comfy!-"
"Why did you sleep on that? We had beds!" Katara said.
"Shush," Toph said.
"Anyway! The breeze kept rolling and I couldn't really sleep that well. It was cold, as always, and I had forgotten to wash my sweatshirt."
"Okay, Sokka. You don't have to set it up like a horror story book," Katara said again.
"Shh," Toph said again.
"Fine then!" Katara joked.
"Anyway! Before I was rudely interrupted...again! So I suddenly hear this really annoying and scary—I was only, like, six—clicking noise. It sounded almost like someone pounding on the fake door or something. And originally, I thought it was the Fire Nation invasion, but I knew it wasn't, because there wasn't any black snow."
Zuko blushed at this point.
"So, the curious kid I was, I went outside to see what it was," Sokka said.
"What? You idiot! It could've been some stranger creeping on you!" Toph said, really into the story herself.
"Ha...well, I didn't truly think of that at the time. I was only six!"
"Hey! I remember this! You told me and dad the story the next morning and started crying because you were so scare-" Katara was cut off.
"Katara! They don't need to know these things!" Sokka said in a hushed tone as the gaang laughed.
"Anyway, again! So as I walked outside I saw old man Harry working on something...I wasn't sure what it was, and I originally got a little scared, thinking it was tools for the Fire Nation or something."
"You were a paranoid child," Zuko commented.
Sokka cast him a death glare.
"And he turned to me with these big eyes, and looked me straight in the face and said this: 'Sokka, son. You need to know something that no innocent people will tell you. The world isn't what it seems, nor will it ever be! But don't be scared, you're only one tenth of a million pieces in this Earth.' And it creeped the living crud out of me! I stood there, frozen like a waterbender's ice, and screamed at the top of my lungs," Sokka said, arm movements showing emphasis.
"Sokka, why? It really wasn't even that scary!" Ty Lee said, her face lit by the fire's sparks.
"Well, as I said, I was only six, and he didn't say it like any normal person. It was an old man's creaky voice. And the scariest thing was, after that he just turned and acted like I wasn't there! Now when an old man does that to you, you smack him right in-"
"Okay, okay, Sokka! Don't ruin our minds, please," Katara said, covering her mouth to quit laughing.
"Fine!" he held his hands up defensively, "But, sometimes I dream about him...and he wasn't there during the Fire Nation invasion, he just disappeared!"
"Maybe he was captured?" Mai suggested blatantly.
"Yeah, maybe the troops were careful with him...sometimes they can tell wisdom when they see it," Zuko finished.
"But he wasn't even there before it all happened. No one in the Tribe knew what happened. I told everyone the story, but it was useless after...you know, so many invasions, it didn't matter anymore. We had better things to worry about rather than just missing old men," Sokka finished, done with his story.
"So. Who's next?" Toph said, looking for another story to ease Sokka's excitement.
"I will," Ty Lee raised her hand feebly.
"Okay. Go ahead, take your time," Aang said, looking into the flames.
FLASHBACK
The sun was bright and shining brilliantly down on the four young children. Ty Lee, Azula, and Mai all in their young years. Seven, eight, nine...
Ty Lee was visiting Azula and Mai for a playdate, for Uncle Iroh had been sent off to fight, and things were shaken up at the royal household.
Mai, she was mainly here to visit Azula and Ty Lee, and Zuko also was sometimes forced to play with the young girls...not that she cared.
Azula was making them play the usual game...light an apple on fire on someone's head, and see if someone will save it before it burns their hair.
"But, Azula! My mommy just cut my hair!" Ty Lee moaned, her hands on her hair.
The breeze rolled through Azula's backyard, causing the green grass to shimmy about. The tall house was nearby, so Azula shushed Ty Lee.
"Ty Lee! You know my mom doesn't like us playing this game!" she scolded.
"Seriously, Ty Lee! It's just hair, not like a billion bucks," Mai said, shoving Ty Lee in front of the large wood tree they always played at.
"But-" Ty Lee began, tears building behind her eyes.
"If you don't play, I'll tell everyone your secret," Azula threatened.
"What?" Ty Lee blubbered.
"You heard me! I'll tell everyone what you told me in confidence a few days ago. You'll never live that down, Ty Lee! Never!" Azula laughed.
Mai looked at Ty Lee, who was now looking Azula in her golden eyes. She had no idea what was going on. A few days ago, Mai had been shopping with her parents. Not that she didn't go miserably shopping every week...
"Azula! I told you to never tell anyone that! You were lucky I even told you!" Ty Lee uttered, tears starting to roll soundlessly down her child-like face.
"What?" Azula roared, "You pests are supposed to tell me everything! Everything!" she emphasized.
Ty Lee's eyes started to shake uncontrollably.
"Azula! You're scaring me!" she screamed.
Mai stood brick-still, watching the scene unfold before her big child eyes.
"Fine! I'll play! But don't tell anyone, Azula! No one! Please!" Ty Lee begged. This was the biggest secret she owned!
"Don't tell me what to do! In fact, just for that, I will tell!" Azula roared, running around the house.
"No!" Ty Lee screamed, running after her.
"What is going on here?" Mai questioned to herself.
"Ty Lee likes someone! Ty Lee likes someone! Ty Lee likes someone!" Azula chanted, running around the entire palace where numerous guards were placed. Her father, Ozai, was outside, to Ty Lee's desperate wishes.
"No, I don't! No! Azula! Please, I don't know what he'll do!" she begged, as she fell and tripped over a rock. Ty Lee was literally on her hands and knees, begging Azula not to tell.
"Ty Lee likes Ozai! Ty Lee likes Ozai! Ty Lee likes Ozai!" Azula shouted, laughing at her friend's pain and tears.
Azula and Zuko's father was now tuned in. And Ty Lee was crying on the grass, not knowing what the soon-to-be Fire Lord was going to do.
"Azula! You know not to call me that!" he said, glaring daggers at his daughter.
Azula just grinned.
"She likes you, Daddy! She likes you!" she chanted, pointing and laughing at Ty Lee.
From that day forward, Ty Lee knew what it was like to be made fun of for such terrible reasons no one should know. She cried for days, knowing that somewhere inside Ozai, he still knew that evidence. Who knew what he would do to her? She was just a little girl, and didn't even know what it was like...being in love. Her seven year old body never experienced such desperate need before.
END FLASHBACK
"Ahem...well, I don't know, guys. It's-" Ty Lee started.
"Embarrassing?" Sokka asked, referring to his story, as well.
"Sorta, but it's really...traumatizing," she explained, blushing a little.
"C'mon, Ty Lee! What is it?" Mai asked, knowing she might've had a role in it. They grew up as friends with Azula, and usually hung out all the time.
FLASHBACK
It was another sunny day on Ozai's coronation. Azula and Zuko were out of their baby years, into the child/pre-teen years. Finally, their father was going to be Fire Lord. Excitement was all over the house today.
"Azula, invite Mai and Ty Lee over for a little bit. We need to prepare, and you children cannot be in the way," her mother ordered.
And so, the day began, Ty Lee and Mai over for a playdate. They were older, slightly more mature, and Azula bored of the game Apple Fire. They named it, as well.
"So, what shall we do, guys?" Azula asked, sitting on the grass beneath the three's favorite tree.
"Maybe just talk. I'm bored of running around," Ty Lee complained.
"Me, too," Mai insisted.
"Fine," Azula said.
The conversation stopped for a bit, each girl thinking of her own things. Mai was thinking of her new dress her parents' bought her...it was the ugliest thing she ever seen. She was contemplating ways to 'accidentally' spill something on it.
Ty Lee was thinking of their past playdates, thinking of something for the girls to do.
But, Azula was thinking of the one time Ty Lee had tried her best to forget.
"Ty?" she asked.
"Yes, Azula?" Ty Lee said, rushed out of her thoughts and into reality.
"Do you remember that one time you liked my Dad?" Azula asked.
Ty Lee's world shook. Of course she remembered, but that time was horrific for her. She had just begun to learn the treachery of Azula, and seen it in action.
"No," she lied.
"Yes you do! You liked him so much! You even told me!" Azula argued. She hated when people lied about her being wrong. Azula was never wrong!
"No, I didn't, Azula! I'd never tell anyone that! That's just ridiculous. I never liked Uncle Ozai," Ty Lee said. That was what the children called him at their ages.
"Yes-huh!" Azula argued again.
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"No, I didn't!" Ty Lee said a little louder.
"Yes, you did!" Azula said, rising.
"Daddy!" she screeched.
"Azula?" they heard, "Darling, is something wrong?" he asked, coming outside in a robe.
"I'm a very busy man today, Azula. What?"
"Didn't Ty Lee like you when she was younger?" Azula asked, standing and pointing at Ty Lee.
"What? I am in no shape for such nonsense!" Ozai boomed, running back inside to prepare for his coronation.
"What?! Yes, she did! Ty Lee! Yes, you did! Admit it, now! Or else!" Azula threatened.
"Or else, what?" Ty Lee played.
"I'll...I'll tell him you like him now!" Azula laughed in thrill.
"I never liked him!" Ty Lee lied. This was not going to be a replay of her childhood playdate. Never. So many years she had blocked it out! It was creeping up on her, and she wouldn't let it in her young mind.
"Ozai! Ty Lee likes Ozai!" Azula chanted.
Mai looked away to the sun, thinking of how long Azula would be a baby...way longer than she had originally thought.
END FLASHBACK
Ty Lee coughed a little bit.
"Well, when we were younger, I admitted that when I was six...Six! I admitted to Azula, stupidly, that I liked Ozai," Ty Lee admitted, blushing a little.
"Of course you liked him, weren't you forced to?" Zuko asked.
"Well, yes...but I mean...like-like."
Quietness surrounded the group. Mai already knew this, Zuko had ideas, and the rest of them were just plain...confused.
Then, suddenly, things were put together, and laughter, hard laughter, erupted.
"What?" Katara gasped between giggles.
The fire flickered a little from Ty Lee's sigh.
"Sorry," Aang began, "it's just the initial surprise that brings...but, really? You did?"
"I'm not going to lie...but I did when I was younger. I should have never told Azula, and when I did, she told Ozai and made me regret ever talking to her. Then, when we were a little older, she brought it back up, asking if it was true when she already knew it was."
"Wow...I can remember Azula tormenting you," Mai admitted.
"Yeah," Ty Lee said, blushing.
"She was young and helpless," Katara said, shrugging.
"I was!" Ty Lee said, "And more than that, I remember when I fell on that rock, she sat there and laughing and laughing at everything."
"Wow, what an evil-" Zuko was cut off.
"And she was even evil back then!" Ty Lee gushed.
"Wow, I still cannot believe you admitted that," Mai commented.
"It was the day of his coronation, correct?" Iroh asked.
"Yes. When everything was hectic, Azula had to stir things up even more. The original admitting was a while before that, I think when you were off at war," Ty Lee recalled, still embarrassed.
"You liked Ozai," Toph contemplated, laughing a little.
"Oh, I was only sev-"
"No, no! I think it's kinda funny. But, I admit, Azula had a way with making people really regret even meeting her," Toph said, referring to Ty Lee's story.
"She did," Ty Lee sighed.
"Woah, woah...How did we even get to talking about her? Seriously, I'm tired. We could always finish these, go around the circle some more, tomorrow night," Zuko said, yawning and looking at Mai.
"Me, too. Let's go, guys," she said.
And so, the gaang walked off, Ty Lee fretting how she was the last story of the night, and how she admitted that to her real friends. Who knew, when she grew up she'd side with the Avatar and his friends, and ditch Azula all together? If she knew that before, she would have never told Azula anything, let alone even talk to the so-called royal princess. Past royal princess, that is.
"Liked Ozai," Toph muttered, laughing on her way to bed.
–
A/N: Hey! I hope you liked that. I really like the italic flashbacks...they were easy to write! So, I'm thinking of writing something of when they were younger, you know? Maybe just a little story inside a story, kinda like this one? Sounds neat...Anyway:: I WANT YOU GUYS TO KNOW: THIS IS STRICTLY A LITTLE GIRL CRUSH. You know, how some little girls have a crush on Elmo, or a cartoon character? THAT'S what I mean...don't think I ship this, for Ty Lee is only SEVEN when she had a crush on him. Kay? I, personally, ship Ty Lee being single in the show..but this is when she is SEVEN, okay?!
Well, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this! REVIEW!
-Regan.
x3