Chapter Four: Yellow
It was a cold week, but the weekend is hot enough for Ty Lee to initiate her plan for Mai.
Her most brilliant of plans. Well, it's pretty simple; lure Mai into wearing a bikini in front of Zuko. They would be such a cute couple! Nobody could resist Mai in a bikini either, especially not Zuko. He makes eyes at Mai, Ty Lee swears.
Fortunately, Ty Lee nabbed her lifelong best friend at the perfect times: after they both dutifully voted for Azula after the super boring debates and speeches. At least no math class!
"Azula is going to be freaking Class President. This is all more of a joke than the Oscars. The only not boring part of her speech was the one about making the freshman fight to the death…"
"I loved all the parts. I don't love the part where she's going on a date tonight. Will you go shopping for bikinis with me?"
And it worked! So, currently, Ty Lee is at the mall with Mai. The sunshine is perfect, but she does not think the magic blonde highlight spray that is supposedly activated by sunlight is working. But Ty Lee wishes that were the worst of her worries.
Right now, Azula is in a movie theatre with Hahn. They probably are making out or maybe he is making a move on her. Ty Lee would do anything to stop thinking about that. And that anything is currently dressing up Mai in a variety of bikini swimsuits.
"It's cute, it's cute, it's cute!" Ty Lee croons about the white one.
Mai groans when she looks into the mirror. "I cannot believe you got me to do my homework at school for this."
"You agreed to go shopping with me." Ty Lee pouts.
'Of course you would use me to forget Azula,' Mai thinks. But she says, "It's better than being home with my parents. Fine, I'll buy a bikini. But I'm going to buy the ugliest one I can find."
"Yay!" Ty Lee cheers.
Mai is in the dressing room when she says, "I know you're trying to get me together with Zuko. You're not very subtle or sneaky."
"No, I'm trying to get my mind off of the fact that Azula is on a date with Hahn. You're helping! Keep helping!" Ty Lee shrieks. She feigns hysterical tears; Mai would do anything to make that stop.
She wonders if she should tell Ty Lee that Azula is in record breaking levels of denial, and that the date with Hahn is likely just to make her jealous, but since Ty Lee is forcing Mai to try on bikinis, she is absolutely not telling. It is not her place to play matchmaker either. The two of them will figure it out eventually.
Mai is not like Ty Lee when it comes to vicarious romance.
"I found the ugliest one. I'll buy it," Mai says.
Ty Lee watches Mai go back into the dressing room with the most revealing suit yet. It's also yellow. Ty Lee is very confused because Mai threatens to gouge the eyes out of people leering at her and she despises the color yellow.
Well, ugliest one is subjective, Ty Lee supposes.
[X]
Once Ty Lee forces Mai into the hideous yellow bikini, Mai walks into Azula's pool and sees Zuko lying there on a rainbow hued floaty. He has on sunglasses and he is extremely muscular. And shirtless. Okay, maybe Mai really likes looking at that.
"You're hotter," Ty Lee whispers to Mai.
Mai does not know what to make of that comment, but she just walks towards the water at Ty Lee's prodding and sits down with her feet in it. Ty Lee keeps mouthing, 'Take off that dress' over and over, which makes Mai glare at her.
There is a reason for the dark cover-up. She definitely is not going into that water.
"Oh, hey! Azula's not here," Zuko says, sitting up and steadying himself on the floaty. Mai wishes he had fallen off.
Mai dryly announces, "Ty Lee wants me to go swimming with you because she thinks we would be a good couple."
Zuko lifts his sunglasses up and stares blankly.
"Oh. That's… honest," he nervously breathes.
Ty Lee somehow still looks hopeful.
[X]
"Why are you wet and wearing yellow? You hate being wet and you hate yellow," is all Azula has to say for herself after returning from her date. She walked into her comfortably climate controlled home and found her sole friends inexplicably inside. Ty Lee thinks she might hate Azula. No, no she doesn't. Ty Lee can't even hate her for two seconds.
"It's all your fault," Mai says to Azula before walking through the open door and across the street.
Azula turns to Ty Lee. "Why are you in my home? I'm not here. Well, I am now. But I wasn't."
"Zuko was here. We were with Zuko because he is fun and we love him and he's a good friend," Ty Lee says before also fleeing.
Azula briefly contemplates investigating that confusing outburst, but then she decides she does not care.
"How was your… study meeting, or whatever your lie to father was?" Zuko asks as he walks inside. He glows as if their attention has value.
She does not tell her brother, but Azula's date did not go well. She had monumentally low expectations, but they were somehow too high. He was a sleazy, obnoxious boy who talked through the entire movie. She glared forward at the screen and bat away his advances.
He asked her if she was crying.
It was an action movie.
Needless to say, she wanted to jab his eyes out with a hot poker by the end of the date. But
"Why were they even here?" Azula demands, unpinning her hair in front of one of the many, many mirrors in this mansion.
Zuko stares at her reflection. He looks far too smug and deserves to be knocked down several notches.
"They came over to swim with me. Maybe you're going out of style," Zuko says as he sets his sunglasses on the pristine counter.
"Maybe you are gallivanting around shirtless and they decided to gawk before making fun of you behind your back like all the girls do," Azula says. He snorts, but she believes those comments will eventually become deep-seated fears within him.
She loves the idea of shattering Zuko as much as she loves the idea of making Ty Lee jealous.
Azula walks up the stairs and to her bedroom, the whole time livid at Ty Lee for not crying in her bedroom. Ty Lee just came and played with Zuko in the pool when she was supposed to be emotionally devastated.
Maybe Azula is not as much of a people person as she thought she was.
She turns off her phone and attends to her homework. Ty Lee can call all she likes; Azula hopes she leaves her hanging.
Azula almost has forgotten about her disastrous date, before she hears knocking on her window. She stands up and walks to see Ty Lee waiting outside. Azula does notice that her best friend has put on fresh makeup before leaping across their roofs.
She contemplates not even unlatching the window, but she does.
"Don't kill me! I brought bubbles!" Ty Lee says, waving the small bottle in front of Azula's face. Ty Lee hands a wand to Azula, whom is absolutely not going to be using it.
Still, Azula decides the bubbles are a peace offering, and she climbs out into the warm night air. Ty Lee smiles when Azula sits beside her and they look out at palm trees and little boxes.
"I couldn't reach your phone," Ty Lee stammers. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I just had a bad day and I didn't mean any of that about Zuko."
Azula yawns pointedly. "I didn't even notice," she says. "I will humor your hipster afternoon of bubbles on my roof."
Ty Lee grins, then mutters, "I'm not a hipster."
"Oh yes you are. You're a textbook prep, of course, but those glasses were just sad."
"Dr. Kazou asked me if I was wearing them to look smart or because I needed them," Ty Lee says, wrinkling her nose.
Azula laughs. "And what did you say?"
"That I usually wear contacts." Ty Lee blushes about her lie in retrospect.
Silence.
For a moment, it seems like they are going to talk of love and jealousy. But that is not appropriate. That is not anything they will ever discuss.
Silence.
"So, what're you doing your history thesis on? I hope I impress him! He's so sexy."
Azula wishes Ty Lee hadn't said that. Sometimes she likes to pretend that she has a chance with the girl next to her. Coldly, she explains, "Well, he gave me McCarthyism. So I'm writing about how politicians use fear to control people, and I'm going to tie in Vietnam and—"
"Okay! Sounds interesting!" Ty Lee interrupts.
Azula smirks. "Sounds boring, or so you think."
"And your women's history thesis?" Ty Lee smiles and leans in. Azula can tell Ty Lee is feigning interest, but it means she does not have to talk about her date, which is a relief.
Azula asks, in honor of Scream and her thesis, "Quick; who was the killer in Friday the 13th?"
Ty Lee blurts out, "Freddy – no Jason! Jason Hockey Mask Man!"
"Wrong. It was Jason's mother." Pause. "I'm writing my thesis on the lack of female villains in the media. Or at least good female villains."
Ty Lee taps her finger on her lip. God, she's bad at pretending to care about these things. "And good would be?"
"Strong character development, true wickedness, not turning her into a sexy dominatrix – the temptress can be the villain but the blonde virgin never is. Oh, motive other than a man or revenge. Revenge is a great motive that I respect deeply, but women only get revenge or do what a man says or are forced to be evil or, usually, they're just insane. No motive would be nice. Essentially, I'd love fair treatment in horror films but I am truly disappointed by the lack of female slashers."
"That's horrifying." Ty Lee attempts to blow bubbles and fails. She stabs the wand into the bottle and sighs. "I'm writing it about unfair beauty standards."
"You love unfair beauty standards," Azula mockingly protests.
Ty Lee tries to blow bubbles and again just gets saliva all over her mouth. "I know, but I want a good grade. How'd you think of that horrifying thesis?"
"Have you ever seen Heavenly Creatures?"
"Nope." Ty Lee smiles.
"I was watching it and the idea occurred to me." Azula belatedly realizes what she has done. No, oh, God, no.
"We should watch it," Ty Lee says. Anything to not have to talk about Azula's date with Hahn.
"No-no we-we really shouldn't." Azula blushes. Ty Lee did not know that could happen. Azula tongue-tied is a very unnerving sight.
"Okay," Ty Lee brightly agrees. Then Ty Lee squints. "There's smoke out there."
Azula leans against the roof. She thinks the crisis may have been averted; she hopes she will not have to watch a movie about two best friends having lesbian sex and killing one of their mothers with Ty Lee today. "Wildfire, probably. Or a barbeque that's going poorly."
"Do you remember when we went to Yellowstone before Freshman Year?" Ty Lee asks, setting down the useless bubble bottle and wiping her hand on her jeans. "And we got to watch a forest fire? And Mai said it was boring, and I was like really worried it would kill us, but you made us watch until your grandparents picked us up?"
Azula smirks and corrects, "That was Crater Lake."
"Oh, it doesn't matter. But I feel like that sometimes when stuff happens and I realize we're getting old and stuff. Like we're watching that forest fire."
"That's the most poetic thing you have ever said, or probably will ever say." The discomfort between them is alien, so Azula hastily tries to correct it. "I've watched four forest fires in my life."
Ty Lee bursts into laughter. "You're sixteen! Are you sure you didn't start any of those?"
"If I did I wouldn't tell you." Azula smirks.
Ty Lee scrunches up her nose and then remarks, "Not as good as the summer with the bear attack."
Azula shakes her head. "The flipped car was better than that and you know it."
"Hmmm. Yeah. I can't top the flipped car. God, Yellowstone is dangerous."
"But a good place to hide a dead body. Just drop it in a geyser and they'll be none the wiser."
"Remind me to never get on your bad side."
Azula just laughs.
Chapter Four: Red
To Mai's relief, Bunny does not get a chance to force her to play paper dolls before Ty Lee tucks her in and she falls asleep for the night.
Now, Mai Shinohai is kneeling in front of Azula's coffee table, flipping through the stack of sentimental things from Ty Lee's apartment. The only interesting objects are a folder filled with family recipes from the 1920's – 1950's and the five scrapbooks her mother gave her for her birthday three years ago. The scrapbooks are hysterical; Mai struggles to keep a straight face.
There is, much to her chagrin, nothing from Ty Lee's missing years. There are three from her early childhood and two from high school.
The first high school one had the Yellowstone picture, but the second is the one Mai enjoys.
"I have some bad news about Ty Lee and your daughter. I thought you should know before you make your decision on if they can get married yet."
"Not your decision!" shouts Azula from the other room. "I have decided! I am the decider and I have decided that she will marry me!"
"So, this adorable album is from before Azula dated Ty Lee. She's so cute, isn't she? All dressed up like a little Bond villain and making arts and crafts…" Mai then picks up the other to a page she has her thumb resting in. "Now she's a Bond girl. Look at that. That's from when she used to make out with Ty Lee under the bleachers."
"I didn't want to know that and why did I ever let her go to school looking like that?"
"Oh, you didn't. She changed every morning before school started after we'd already gotten dropped off," Mai says. There is startling silence from the other side of the penthouse.
Ozai is at a loss for words, so he tries to be polite. "She looks very tasteful and lovely in red lipstick and wearing heels with her—what is that shirt?"
Azula does not even have to see the pictures to screech, "It's a cardigan! I'm dressed business casual!"
"If you're a call girl, yes," Mai comments.
Her husband attempts to disagree with, "But a very classy call girl for politicians and movie stars."
And Ty Lee shouts, "Thank you! I thought she looked good like that!"
Azula decides the answer to the ensuing silence is wine. She produces a bottle worthy of her father and Ty Lee hands her the cups.
Perhaps tonight can be salvaged.
"These are not wine glasses," Mai says as she watches Azula pour fine wine into blue Solo cups. It does not seem like something Azula would do.
"I only use plastic plates, cups and cutlery," Azula says in a startlingly matter-of-fact manner.
Mai stares at her briefly before asking, "Are you secretly a Captain Planet villain in your spare time?"
"If you love the environment so damned much, then you are free to do my dishes every night," Azula coldly says. Mai has no desire to push the argument; to be honest, she does not care.
"So," asks Ozai as Azula and Ty Lee sit across from their uninvited guests. "You never told me how you two went from neighbors to dating. I never cared enough to ask, because she appeared at the time to be a short fling, but apparently you two are getting married now. Now seems appropriate, however, to hear this… love story that resulted in my daughter wearing her skirt like that."
Azula clasps her hands on her lap and begins to launch into the lie she already made up, but Mai smirks. Azula's confident expression disappears instantaneously.
"Oh, she's going to lie to you," Mai says. "I'll tell you the real story of how they figured out they were in love or whatever. They had a mutual crush since they were nine, but they were in denial so they never acted on it.
"Then they decided to seduce our junior year history teacher. They discussed this threesome for quite a while, before Azula awkwardly brought up – during a sleepover with me; she was texting Ty Lee – that they would have to touch each other and asked if Ty Lee would be okay with that. I'm not really sure why that worked, but Ty Lee was apparently too enthusiastic about her response. Then they went on a date and it was young love."
Mai finishes with a toast in Azula's direction with her blue Solo cup. It is not the classiest thing she has ever done.
Ozai can only say, "I think I would have preferred to hear the lie."
Mai, undeterred, smirks and suggests, "They should invite him to their wedding."
"He works as some kind of scientist off the coast of Seattle now," Azula says after a brief moment's thought. The tension the Mai sparked in the room at last fades away.
Her father inquires, "Why do you know that?"
"He works for me." Azula cocks an eyebrow.
Ty Lee gasps. "Dr. Kazou works for you?"
"Yes." She then shifts her gaze to her father. "Don't worry, I didn't hire him; I'm just aware of it," Azula says, shrugging.
"Azula, you're all being sarcastic about how you began dating your future wife, I imagine," Ozai says, uncertain if he can force himself to drink out of a blue plastic cup and more uncertain about if this surprise visit was a good idea.
"No sarcasm," Azula admits. "That's a very good summary of how it happened. If it helps, I only pretended to be interested in him so that I could destroy her. He liked me better because I actually did my schoolwork and he directed the school plays. I used to go to him with my thesis papers and he would tell me how impressive I was. Then I would tell her about it."
Mai narrows her eyes and asks, "Have you only shown romantic interest to destroy others?"
"Define romantic," Azula curtly replies.
Ozai says, "This conversation is over," in that tone that always makes everyone obey him.
It is the most uncomfortable silence Azula Shinohai has ever experienced.
"I know you're trying to be all serious but," and Ty Lee thrusts her phone into Azula's line of sight, "look a baby is playing with puppies!"
"Let's all watch the baby play with puppies," Mai suggests, and she has never had a better idea.
[X]
Azula has never been more grateful to lie down in silence. Oh, wait, her soon-to-be wife joins her and seems to have a lot to say. Marvelous.
"I had this thought tonight," Ty Lee says as she lies down and sets her cold feet right on Azula's legs. "Why didn't you tell me Mai was your stepmother?"
Azula blanches. She had hoped Ty Lee would never ask that question.
"We weren't together long enough," Azula lies.
"We were together for a year before I went to Christmas," Ty Lee says, narrowing her eyes.
"I forgot." That is a significantly worse attempt.
Ty Lee slowly snarls, "You forgot?"
"Yes," says Azula.
"Azula," Ty Lee hisses.
She surrenders with honor and what is left of her dignity. "Fine. I was hiding you from my father and I knew that if you knew about Mai, you would want to see her, and then I'd be screwed. I did forget to tell you before Christmas, though."
"Why did you even hide me? Why did you hide our engagement? Why are you so ashamed of us and love and marrying me?" Ty Lee asks hoarsely.
Azula turns to her fiancée and looks her straight in her sparkling eyes. God, she has gorgeous eyes. Azula never quite understood 'doe-eyed' until she saw it. She missed a lot of what makes Ty Lee beautiful when she was in high school.
All she wanted then was the chase.
Now she wants to keep her prize forever.
"Listen to me, Ty Lee," Azula says after taking a deep breath. "I was trying to protect us both. You should know that my family is going to torment you before we get married. I know my parents are horribly divorced, but my family takes marriage very seriously. My grandmother literally chained herself to things in protests; my grandfather sold nuke the whales magnets. My grandmother gives preachy speeches about how she fought against a credit card company for demanding her dad or husband to give a signature; my grandfather rants about women these days not being subservient enough."
"Opposites attract?" Ty Lee smiles at the potentially sweet love story.
"No. They hooked up at a Halloween party and she got pregnant so they married at eighteen."
Ty Lee's smile vanishes. "That's…"
"They have been married for over fifty years. Mai and my father flipped a goddamned coin to decide if they should get married and have been together for six years. My parents hated each other forever but they stayed married until she left him for my uncle after they had a four-year affair, because if you haven't noticed my family has a horrifying track record of eternal marriages."
"That's…"
"That's why they all are concerned. You have a child, when we were young you and I were hot and cold—"
"We aren't having a shotgun wedding, at least!" Ty Lee exclaims.
"They think you're flaky and I'm making a horrible mistake. Except my grandmother and uncle. But my grandmother just wants a gay marriage in the tabloids and my uncle loves weddings," Azula explains. She looks genuinely bitter and angry about her family. Ty Lee has never seen her like that.
"Do you think you're making a horrible mistake?" Ty Lee asks and Azula blinks three times fast.
Aghast, she replies, "Of course not. I never make mistakes."
"Then why do you care if your family thinks you are? Stand up to them and tell them that you're doing this and you accept the consequences if I do something awful."
"That's… wise. Don't say smart things; it's unnerving," Azula says and Ty Lee rolls her eyes.
Azula just smirks and closes her eyes.
She is quite glad she has a deceptively clever fiancée.
Ty Lee might just survive Shinohai Family.
AN: So, I've gotten some questions about the time period of this story. To be honest, the prequel takes place in 2012 and the sequel takes place in 2016. Which, while I am a college dropout, I do know I absolutely not a ten-year difference, but I kind of want this to age decently and not do as much guesswork (past or future) so I'm going to pretend that it has been a decade since 2012.
