Lazy Late Night

Zuko reflected that coming down from an adrenaline high wasn't much fun.

Wrecking Chan's house and burning the ruins down was a hoot. Zuko admitted that. Even considering current circumstances, such a memory made the whole night worth it. Of course, after fun like that, anything was going to pale in comparison. When the follow-up consisted of ambling back to Li and Lo's cramped house and sitting around The Terrible Trio (...no, Zuko didn't like that. Azula's Angels? Nah, how could Azula be one of Azula's Angels? The ATM Machine? Not bad, but not great. Zuko resolved to think about it more later.) as the night faded to day, the contrast was almost too much to bear.

It wasn't that Zuko didn't like hanging out with his sister's friends. Sure, hanging out with some of his own theoretical friends would have been more respectable, but there was no denying the view was good, this way. And, okay, spending time with Azula was always a horrible experience, but Mai kind of balanced that out. Kind of the way Ty Lee balanced being a walking annoyance by equally annoying Azula.

Actually Ty Lee was the crux of Zuko's current problem. He wanted to go do something appropriate to having just had a personal revelation and subsequently committing arson, like taking a long walk on the beach brooding as he watched the sun rise. Or getting some Fire Flakes from one of the all-night stands. Or stealing a boat and going to look for the Avatar for a while, just for kicks. But here he was, stuck in Li and Lo's nasty-smelling sitting room, because of Ty Lee.

She claimed she thought she believed she knew him, earlier that night, so Zuko wasn't surprised when she sat down near him when they all arrived back at the beach house. She was probably waiting for an opportunity to act all buddy-buddy with him or hug him or whatever it was she did to express friendship. And as the adrenaline wore off and they all sat around talking, some of the group had gotten sleepy. Like, all the girls. (He was surprised at Azula, but not Mai; his girlfriend was so chronically bored with the world that it was a wonder she didn't nod off whenever she was still.) Including Ty Lee. Who, unlike her two pillow-loving friends, had no problem laying her vacant little head on his ankles and going out like a candle in the wind.

He couldn't get up or move without waking her, and he was such a nice guy now that he couldn't bring himself to actually do that. (Plus, he remembered having a little crush on her years ago, and he felt obligated to Honor that memory by not adding physical abuse to the verbal lashing he gave her earlier that night. And she could probably beat him up.) Yet his feet were getting that tingly, pins'n'needles feeling. And he really wanted to go outside and brood a little like a real warrior.

Zuko reflected that his life was an endless parade of suffering, and sighed like Mai at a formal banquet.

A wrinkled hand slapped him in the back of the head, startling him and nearly making him kick Ty Lee into the air like a ball. Zuko turned around to see Li and Lo in the doorway behind him. Why were they still up?

The twins gave him identical derisive glares. "We know what you were thinking," Li or Lo (he couldn't tell them apart) said. "And we're sick of all your mental whining," Lo or Li (he still couldn't tell them apart) added. They moved off into the darkened kitchen area, and were lost to view.

Zuko reflected that coming down from an adrenaline high wasn't much fun.

END