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IN BLOOM
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Azula and Ty Lee have sex tonight.
They know very well that they should not. Azula is a fugitive and Ty Lee should be doing her job as a defender of the peace, but she cannot help but be sucked in. The fire lilies are in bloom, and so is this tender, forbidden romance.
"I shouldn't," Ty Lee had whispered.
And then Azula touched her hand and huskily said, "It will be our little secret."
It happened. Ty Lee cannot take it back, and neither can Azula.
The princess does not want to be foolish enough to be sleeping with someone while she should be nonexistent, but she was in town and could not help herself. It terrifies her. This is a nightmare, a horrid nightmare.
In the morning, the window in the inn room open, the smell of the blooming fire lilies is sweet and crisp and fresh on the Earth Kingdom breeze. And Ty Lee lies naked beside her princess, beside a her enemy. Because, oh yes, they hate each other as deeply as one can hate, even if they did fuck all night.
Ty Lee gently walks her fingers up Azula's arm. It is still damp with drying, cold sweat. Ty Lee imagines hers must be in the same state. But all she can feel is the heartbeat of a ghost beside her. She kisses Azula on the ear, and then the cheek, and then rises from the bed.
She wants to lie back down. She wants to brew a pot of tea.
But this cannot be.
Ty Lee has grown up enough in the years since the war that she can figure that out.
She gazes at Azula as the princess's eyelids flutter and Ty Lee's breath catches in fear of Azula waking.
But she does not. She remains fast asleep.
So, Ty Lee slips away. She never thought she would be the one to do it, but she does. Leaving Azula makes her chew at her lips until they bleed. She looks back more times than she would care to admit.
Bu she knows this one night stand in an inn just off a winding side road to Ba Sing Se…
Well, it is their little secret to keep and their enormous lie to tell.