Higher Calling
"How was it, the first time?"
Ty Lee didn't answer at first, lowing her gaze and staying silent.
"Please? I need to know."
She flipped into a handstand, but didn't turn around, so that he couldn't see her face. "The backlash hurt. I cried for a whole day, afterward. Azula didn't like that, so she made me do it every day after that until it didn't matter anymore. She had me use Zuko, but when their mother found out I had to stop and only use other kids at school."
Aang considered that. "At first it wasn't bad for me. I was proud that I came up with a way to stop Ozai without hurting him. But as time passed, it started to bother me. The feel of it didn't go away. The adrenaline high faded, my elation at our victory faded, even my love for Katara faded, but the sense of his chi didn't. It's all I can taste, now."
Ty Lee swung back down into a crouch and looked at him. "But do you feel bad about it?"
"I didn't at first. But..."
She waited.
"...I realized a while ago that it felt like this for him, only worse, and while I have my own Bending to sustain me, he had nothing."
She nodded. "Have you cried yet?"
"No."
"I think you need to."
He closed his eyes and nodded in agreement, and with that action, all the feeling manifested in the physical world as tears and sobs. It got more intense as he continued, until it was almost painful, and Ty Lee felt compelled to hold him until he stopped.
They were never seen by mortal eyes again.
END
