#29: Who Am I to Disagree?
Prompted By: GuitarBOSS
Ty Lee sleeps fitfully for the first night in prison. Mai sits in the corner and counts down the days until they are presumably executed. The Boiling Rock is not terrible. But they were not meant to be traitors. Mai was a good kid who did as she was told, got good grades and conquered Ba Sing Se. She should not be a traitor.
But Ty Lee seems even more shaken by it. Mai was as surprised as Azula was when Ty Lee chose her. But she does not mention it for fear of setting Ty Lee off.
Mai watches her sleep, feeling like a creep. Ty Lee turns over on the stiff and uncomfortable bed and murmurs, "Azula. Azula don't."
Crawling across the filthy floor and staining her red rags, Mai sits closer to her, wondering if she should wake her up. Azula don't kill me, likely dream Ty Lee is screaming. It must have been exactly what she was feeling when she blocked Azula's chi.
"Azula don't leave me," Ty Lee murmurs in her slumber and Mai knits her eyebrows together.
Well, two romances were shattered last week. Mai sits back down with her heart beating a little too quickly.
Many miles away from the filthy prison cell and steaming water of the Boiling Rock, Azula lies in bed, her knees touching her chest.
No one can hear her when she talks in her sleep. Lonely. Always lonely.
But she murmurs in the darkness of her gilded bedroom, "Ty Lee. Ty Lee don't leave me."
Many years after Sozin's Comet, Azula talks in her sleep far more than Ty Lee does. She twists and kicks blankets and murmurs about her mother or her father. Ty Lee will sometimes watch her, waiting to see if she should wake her up or if she genuinely needs to sleep.
But tonight in her sleep, she is peaceful. Ty Lee smiles faintly as she hesitantly brushes Azula's raven hair out of her face.
And she breathes Ty Lee's name, as if is pleasant. Not the tortured, "Father, no, please..." or the worse screams about her mother. Beautiful words on beautiful and peaceful rosy lips.
Ty Lee smiles faintly to herself.
Azula wakes up without screaming. She rubs her eyes and glances around. The sun has not risen yet and Ty Lee is sleeping beside her. Azula had no nightmares last night. She did not wake up clawing at herself or gasping for breath. Her heart is not racing. She does not feel the suffocation of a panic attack.
She slept like she was happy.
"You're awake," Ty Lee whispers, sitting up slowly.
"Yeah." Azula lies back down, her head on one of the multitude of black, red and golden pillows.
"Did you have nightmares?" Ty Lee shifts through the bed and rests her head on Azula's shoulders.
"No," Azula murmurs earnestly.
"You slept like you were happy," Ty Lee murmurs, neglecting to mention her name on Azula's lips.
"I guess I did."
