+We Were Born from Ashes+
"You are a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Like catching lightning in a bottle. Isn't that the phrase? That's some kind of phrase…" Ty Lee frowns as she examines Azula.
"I have no idea," Azula says softly as she rolls her ankle. She wants to go to sleep, but she also does not, and she is just glad to have Ty Lee beside her. "I think that you are my one weakness."
"Oh…?" Ty Lee raises an eyebrow, but does not comment too much.
"Well, let's see. You can take away my bending whenever you want," Azula says, examining her hands and trying not to look at all emotionally invested. "You are quite difficult to read, given your expertise at fake smiles, or maybe I just don't want to know what you're thinking…"
"Maybe I'm not thinking anything," Ty Lee suggests with a small, self-deprecating chuckle.
"I'll take that. And you are a fucking therapist." Azula almost spits the last part.
Ty Lee sniggers and Azula wants to slap her. "Oh, but Azula, I only did it for you."
Azula frowns at the shadowy ceiling of their bedroom. "I don't understand why you weren't comfortable just being a warrior."
"I've told you that I was just trying to do something less murdery with my chi-blocking skills, and I started learning about using them for therapeutic things, and then it just escalated," Ty Lee says honestly, thinking of how much she enjoyed her journey through empathy and introspection.
Ty Lee was magnificent at it. She is nonthreatening, yet very educated, open minded, knowledgeable about auras, has been through the wringer herself, but doesn't wallow in it. And she is very open to new medical advancements like broken minds instead of just broken bones.
Until a certain set of circumstances perhaps required her to quietly resign in fear of public humiliation and disgrace.
Azula complains, "Escalated to absolute absurdity. You are the dumbest person I know, and I still do not understand why anyone would ever give you such certification."
"You know I'm not stupid." Ty Lee rolls her eyes. The joke is no longer endearing, but she will tolerate Azula's tongue, because… reasons involving her tongue.
Azula pouts for a moment. "I do. It's so disgusting."
"Because it makes me likable? I started being shallow because it worked really well for me. It made life so painless, and everybody liked me. And I mean, I'm way better with my hands than my head. You are not the only person who is still in shock that I did something intellectual with my life."
"Well, you quit your job in order to become a princess."
Ty Lee laughs at that suggestion. "I quit my job in order to have sex with a princess."
"Are we still saying that you quit?"
"Yes."
"You seem very passionate about that lie." Azula layers on the threatening tone, but Ty Lee does not even blink or worry for a second.
"It is for my good, your good and the good of Zuko for bailing me out of the situation," Ty Lee says with a flashy grin.
Azula just shrugs. "I think it's very sweet how all of your life choices have revolved around your feelings for me. I would be flattered, if it weren't just such a given."
Ty Lee scoffs. And then contemplates it. And then groans.
"I'm going to sleep."
"Do you think Azula got lost and is going to die?" Mai asks dryly, blinking several times to wet her eyes.
They had glazed over from the endlessly boring wedding plans she is being forced to look at.
"No. She's only been gone for ten minutes."
"I don't think she knows how to operate a grocery store," Mai remarks as she glances up at the door for the thousandth time. Flatly, she adds, "I worry about her sometimes."
"Oh sweet spirits!" Ty Lee shrieks as she is halfway through flipping a page in the book, and nearly giving Mai a heart attack. "Which of us will you be Maid of Honor for?"
Mai looks at Ty Lee, stunned by how small of a problem that is. It is definitely much too small to justify her being on the verge of tears. While Mai hates to agree with her parents, marriage is way simpler when it's creepy and arranged behind your adolescent back.
Ty Lee is scarier than that, somehow.
"I don't care," Mai says and Ty Lee yanks the book away, nearly slicing Mai's hand open. "Why does that surprise and anger you?"
"Because it's important! Do you not love us both?" Ty Lee cries and Mai nods.
"I guess Azula, because you probably can find a lot of other people willing to do that for you. And I think Zuko is doing the father of the bride job for her, so he's out of the running for maid of honor. That's it. Those are the only two people remotely willing to be in Azula's wedding party."
"I can give her a few of mine," Ty Lee mutters, jotting down a note that Mai cannot read from afar.
"I don't know if she'll like that. No, no, I don't think they will ever talk to you again if you make them Azula's servants, even for just one day."
"It is my wedding and I will do whatever I want!" Ty Lee exclaims and Mai shrugs.
"Go ahead." They are, thankfully, interrupted by Azula entering and throwing the bag of groceries onto the table.
A loud crunch of a broken wine bottle rings through the room.
"That was… ineffective," Mai says calmly as Ty Lee jumps away from the spilling red liquid, like someone's vein just exploded all over the table. She nearly loses the wedding book, which makes Mai think Azula might have lost a finger if Ty Lee didn't rescue it from the tsunami.
"What kind of shoddy, low class item breaks that easily," Azula says sharply, looking genuinely surprised that throwing a wine bottle onto a table would not break it.
Mai sighs as Ty Lee is examining her book for any stains.
"I don't know Azula. Maybe we can complain to the shop owner."
This will be a fun sleepover, Mai decides.
Zuko looks up at her and does not know what to say.
This is not how things were intended to be. He is not going to confirm his feelings for his best friends wife, not in a million years. But, here she is, demanding to know, that look in her eyes of utter, unabashed stubbornness.
"Just tell me. Tell me right now," Katara says forcefully and Zuko shrugs.
Ugh. Shrugging was definitely not the right response, but she does not seem to care. In fact, she seems to prefer it.
"I can't think about this right now."
"How are you not with Azula and Ty Lee getting married? And the fact that everyone is coupling, even Azula. Azula is able to land a stable relationship and you..." Katara purses her lips and realizes that it was probably the most callous thing she has ever said.
"Of course it's weird to me, but those feelings are old. And they should... they should go away," Zuko says and Katara slowly breathes in and out.
"I want you to tell me if there is any reason that I shouldn't..."
Zuko hesitates. "Of course not. I wasn't expecting anything other than that."
Katara stares at him, and Zuko stares back, and this is how it always goes.
"If that's what you want," Katara says calmly and Zuko thinks that perhaps he has been clueless and said something wrong.
She gets up and leaves him, leaves him thinking too hard about yesterday's feelings.
Mai knows a hustler when she sees one. Mostly because the way she has entertained herself on her travels is by scamming people at games of darts. Their expressions are pretty funny, and Mai sees that exact expression on the faces of a multitude of people losing at a drinking contest.
She is still sitting in the corner, her date having miraculously disappeared. She needs someone to be dating her if she is going to go to Azula and Ty Lee's wedding. Then she can get rid of them, but someone in this bar has to be good enough to raise Mai's social standing.
And Mai has definitely found that person. The girl with pale skin and a dark tattoo standing out starkly against it in contrast. Mai thinks that perhaps she is exactly perfect, if a bit unwise of a decision.
Now, all she has to do is attract her attention. That should not be so difficult, seeing as Mai has now had enough liquid courage to go volcano spelunking. She stands up, walking across the room with what she hopes is confidence and not a swagger.
"Are you going to give me a try?" asks the woman and Mai just shrugs one shoulder.
"Actually, I was thinking that you could play my game," Mai says and Jun smirks.
"I don't think you have half a chance at beating me at any of the bar games in this place," Jun replies, looking the Fire Nation girl up and down. The men and women here are all so bold and overconfident; they make Jun look humble in comparison.
And, while the bounty hunter was not selling criminals, she was making a killing by exploiting eager and egotistical drunks. That is the embodiment of the girl in front of her.
"You wanna wager?" asks Jun, sitting down on the table and looking at Mai with a strangely desirable scrutiny.
It is the kind of patronizing gaze that makes you just want to dominate someone.
"Yeah," Mai agrees and Jun gives her a glance that is less arousing and more like Azula or a cautious cat.
"You look pretty rich," Jun remarks, shrugging and sliding down. "What's your game?"
Mai walks over to the man who keeps hopping on his foot and hoping to win somehow and grabs the darts out of his hands. His friend laughs behind his drink, and Mai wonders who thought that darts was ever a good idea to have in every bar.
"I'm not half bad," Jun says. She honestly does not think she even has to worry about playing this pale, skinny little girl with slender, soft arms.
"I believe you. So your wager?" Mai asks, cocking an eyebrow.
"Everything in your purse."
"What if I have nothing in it but old wrappers and a pair of stolen earrings?" Mai remarks, although she is fairly certain that she has a good deal of money and some very nice, expensive blades.
"Well, I'll have it and you won't." The girl Mai is somehow trying to seduce by screwing out of her money is now finding her set of darts.
Mai breathes in and out and examines her own. "If I win," Mai says and Jun cannot contain her small laugh, "if I win, you have to go with me to my friend's wedding and say that we're dating."
Jun laughs harder. "That one's new. I mean, I've been asked for a night in bed, but pretending to be a date to a wedding."
The bounty hunter likes the nerve on this one.
"Azula, Azula, Azula, Azula, wake up!" shouts someone jumping onto the princess's bed. "The sky is on fire."
"What?" Azula asks, squinting at her fiancee and then glancing at the window and seeing a quite pretty meteor shower. It just makes Azula want to go back to sleep.
"Come outside and watch it with me." Ty Lee grabs Azula's arm and yanks with no restraint.
"Fine, whatever," Azula mutters as she is guided onto wet grass and a gross, hot summer night.
They are pretty, however, transfixing as can be. But Azula's eyes keep wandering to the girl beside her and how captivated she is about something that happens every few summers. It is secretly something Azula truly likes about her, the ability to be able to find pleasure in small things.
Azula struggles to find pleasure in anything much of the time.
"Why are you staring at me? Do I have bedhead?" Ty Lee starts rubbing her frizzy hair around her lopsided braid.
"Yes," Azula says, before redirecting her gaze to the brilliant lights in the sky. "But, honestly, there are things down here that I like much more than in the sky. Things that I can actually touch."
"And that's...?" Ty Lee asks and Azula just looks at her again. "You can be sweet sometimes."
"More than sometimes," Azula purrs and Ty Lee does not argue as she pulls her into a fierce kiss.
Yes, there are burning things down here that Ty Lee can touch and not just gaze at.
And Azula tonight with her on soaking grass in a quiet courtyard is much more beautiful than a meteor shower.