INDEPENDENCE

Azula and Ty Lee were excited for an unsupervised outing at the age of twelve. It was rare for the princess to ever have one permitted by her father. She hoped he was beginning to respect her independence, but also doubted it.

They went to the park, where a beautiful meadow lay between the statues of Fire Lords and war heroes.

"I hope I'm memorialized here one day," said Azula, sitting back on the bench. Ty Lee reclined beside her, smiling and plucking flowers from the ground to weave a flower crown.

"You will be. You're like the greatest firebender of all time. I bet you could win the war singlehandedly, especially once you're Fire Lord." Ty Lee smiled and continued weaving as Azula took a moment to look up at the clouds.

"I know," said Azula at last.

Ty Lee placed the crown on Azula's head.

"It's nice being alone with you. It makes me feel free." Ty Lee smiled.

Azula looked at her for a moment. "Free to do what?"

"Oh. I, uh…" Ty Lee blushed ferociously. "Talk about whatever we want, I guess. Go places we wanna go without anyone stopping us."

"I hope we can do this more," said Azula.

"Yeah." Ty Lee's gaze drifted to Azula's lips unintentionally.

Azula took a deep breath, threw caution to the wind and kissed her.

Their first kiss.

Their first taste of independence.

Their first taste of a possible chance to love each other without anyone finding out.