Taking the Leap

51. Loud

The noise in the tea shop is raucous.

Azula does not usually go to such public places as these, and she thinks she hates it. It is a busy, morning rush, of people being ushered in and out as quickly as the waiters can manage, and everyone seems to be in a sour mood.

Well, Azula supposes that she is also about to bite the throat out of anyone who messes with her when she is this tired and waiting for a flighty girl who may or may not show up. Because it would be like Ty Lee to stand her up, wouldn't it?

Of course it would.

Azula waits, kicking her foot back and forth as people silently rage over how much of the very desired space she is taking for herself. But none of them can dare to ask anything of the feared Princess Azula.

At last, Ty Lee does walk in. Azula looks her up and down as she walks in and stands on her toes, looking around for her friend. She scampers over excitedly when she at last sees Azula, and nearly trips as she settles into her chair.

"Well, you brought me to this dreadful place for a reason, I suppose?" Azula asks, her lip twisted. She looks disgusted, as Ty Lee could have predicted.

But, Ty Lee does notice, Azula is still here after being made to wait for nearly half an hour.

Ty Lee's eyes glitter with delight at that fact.

.

52. Gaze

Ty Lee is being stared at by Princess Azula of the Fire Nation and she could not be more thrilled if she tried.

It brings a small smile to her lips.

So maybe Azula's gaze is glazed over and she isn't staring longingly. She obviously is just trapped inside of her head, deep in thought about something. But Ty Lee likes the staring.

It makes her heart race.

.

53. Ink

Azula is very intently focused on her work.

She is writing down and sketching out the plans and notes for her infiltration again and again, making sure she does not miss a single moment. Her hand is streaked with the pitch black ink, dripping and shimmering with how wet it still is.

It is Ty Lee's turn to stare as she lies, stretched across Azula's bed. Her head rests by the princess's left hip, but she is very focused on her work.

This is kind of the worst sleepover ever.

As Azula has been deep in thought about her plans, Ty Lee has been formulating plans of her own. She knows she just needs to take the leap and jump right onto this opportunity before she loses it.

And so she says, "You work too hard," before draping her arms over Azula's shoulders.

She leaves in the morning with streaks of black ink on her skin.

.

54. Whistle

"Stop," Mai says as Ty Lee shifts to another song. "I am going to go insane if you keep doing that. We still have two weeks before we get to Ba Sing Se."

Ty Lee stops singing for a moment and everything falls silent.

Mai glances over her shoulder at Azula, and she thinks she can see the palpable and painful sexual tension in this forest.

Sigh.

.

55. Hot

The three girls lose their entourage when they find a beautiful pool of light blue water. It is so blue that Azula has no idea what to make of it. She thinks for a few moments that perhaps it is somehow poisonous or a trap, but before she can investigate, there is a splash as the girl with zero inhibitions just tosses herself in.

Ty Lee is beneath the surface for a moment too long and Azula would like to pretend that she doesn't feel a surge of panic about it. So help her, if that girl drowns or gets eaten by some Earth Kingdom spirit...

But Ty Lee breaks through the surface, smiling and dripping with the ice cold water.

"Why would you do that?" Azula snaps before realizing that she sounds as if she cares about it. That would be absurd.

It isn't like she felt her heart pounding out of control when she saw Ty Lee disappear into the blue.

"It's so hot out!" Ty Lee screams back honestly, bobbing up and down before wiping her eyes with her hand.

Azula just looks away, disinterestedly examining her hands.

It is hot.

.

56. Whine

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Do you see a wall or not, Ty Lee?"

"... No."

"Azula."

"..."

"Azula."

"..."

"Azula."

"..."

"Azula!"

"What?"

"My feet hurt."

"Feel lucky I am letting you keep them!"

"Don't be mean."

"..."

"Azula."

"..."

"Azula!"

"What?"

"I love you. I'm sorry for whining so much."

.

57. Bizarre

It is a bear. Azula stood for some time trying to figure out what animal that possibly could be, but apparently it is a bear. Named Bosco.

"Aww," Ty Lee responds, smiling. "It's so sweet. I want one of those!"

Azula stares at it, wondering when it means to use those horridly sharp teeth. But it just contentedly looks at the three girls garbed in stifling green, like an exceptionally well trained housecat.

Ty Lee moves to pet the bear and Azula lunges forward, grabbing her. The acrobat chokes slightly, startled.

"Don't pet dangerous animals," Azula snaps, although her heart has started pounding from embarrassment.

Ba Sing Se is bizarre.

.

58. Whispering

Azula is awake when someone crawls into her bed. And even if she were asleep, she would certainly be woken by the knee that digs into her side. She winces and rolls over to face a quite frightened Ty Lee. Her eyes glisten in the moonlight and Azula can only see that for a moment.

"What is it?" the princess asks softly and Ty Lee feels as if she has narrowly dodged ten arrows at once.

"I'm just... It's hard to sleep here," Ty Lee whispers and Azula shrugs.

For her, it is hard to sleep anywhere. With the constant nightmares, stress, migraines and the ceaseless, looming sense of doom she cannot escape. Sense of doom. That is the kind of unpleasant feeling the most people only have when kneeling on an executioner's block or on more drugs than a person can count.

"You seem mellow for the first time since we left the Fire Nation," Azula remarks, wishing she sounded more mocking and less genuinely interested.

She is bad at this.

"I was just trying to have fun." Ty Lee thinks she means that.

They whisper a while longer.

.

59. Zoo

The three girls visit the zoo in Ba Sing Se and Ty Lee is more excited than she thought she would be. She knows she is too old to be excited about this, and she also knows that she is a soldier in enemy territory.

"I want in there," Ty Lee whines as she looks at the cutest of the animals.

Mai is staring at the flavored ice Azula bought her to stop her from complaining, and Azula is even more disinterested than usual. But the princess does glance over her shoulder.

"Well... if we can infiltrate Ba Sing Se... I think we can infiltrate a zoo," Azula says, offering a wink.

Ty Lee's eyes light up excitedly.

They spend that night in the zoo, as Mai sighs and moans about how they're going to be mauled to death, and Azula and Ty Lee maybe have more than a few sparks.

.

60. Protection

The coup is in twenty-three hours. And it is all that Azula can think about.

"Umm," Ty Lee begins, heart pounding, mouth dry, "I'm really excited, and I know you can definitely pull off this coup. You could do anything! Pretty much! But I, um, hm. It's gonna be dangerous, so..." Ty Lee swallows. "Take this."

Ty Lee's lips touch Azula's.

AN: I think I'm going to make the zoo drabble into a longer oneshot.