#05: Fever
Prompted By: Koka Kola Veins

"I feel terrible," is what Ty Lee wakes up to.

Azula is sick. No, no, Azula is not sick.

"I'm sure it's just hot out..." Ty Lee offers, turning her palms up and smiling. But it is like an inexperienced fortune teller trying to help the cougar-lion tamers at the circus. Futile, and probably will end with a maiming.

"I am definitely sick. Just listen to my voice. Feel my body. I am sick." Azula's hand collides softly with Ty Lee's face. Her palm is clammy and feverish and Ty Lee stifles a cough. Oh, she is getting it too, isn't she?

"Okay, maybe you're sick," Ty Lee says slowly, peeling Azula's hand off of her. She examines her wife nervously, looking at her slightly ajar rosy lips and half closed golden eyes.

"Just kill me," Azula groans loudly, her voice constricted with mucus, and Ty Lee can only think, so it begins, before regretting her thoughts. She should not think such terrible things about the tormented, beautiful woman she married. "Burn me alive; it will be more merciful than this."

"I don't think you can burn alive, Azula," Ty Lee says hesitantly, her voice a timid squeak.

"Ugh, then behead me, see if I care," Azula snarls, a slight glint of malice in her tired eyes. "Now, as I said, Ty Lee, I feel terrible. Do something about it. And none of your weird Earth Kingdom peasant witch doctor nonsense."

"There weren't any witch doctors on Kyoshi Is─"

"Sh." A finger misses Ty Lee's lips, Azula's eyes closed. Her pointed claws nearly scratch Ty Lee's neck, but her arm flops down weakly on the plush red mattress. "Find me medicine. And new clothes. And... a towel. Some tea with honey? No... not honey. Sugar. Refined sugar─"

"I'm not going to remember any more than that," Ty Lee says, her neck bones protruding with her grimace. "I'll start with the clothes."

I'm not your servant, Ty Lee thinks behind her glittering white smile. But she loves Princess Azula, even when she is sick. In sickness and in health is the greatest scam...

There is a high chance that Azula will not like the clothes Ty Lee picks out, but she tries to find something reasonable, and digs it out of the drawers. She kicks them shut with the tip of her toes and walks to Azula. She sets the dress on Azula's concave abdomen. Azula raises an eyebrow as if this is ridiculous.

"Are you going to ask me to put your clothes on you?" Ty Lee asks, trying to remain as positive as possible.

"How am I going to do this myself?" Azula says in the most regal tone Ty Lee has ever heard. "I'm violently ill."

You have a cold, Ty Lee wants to say, but she holds her tongue and starts helping Azula into her dress. She firmly believes the princess is intentionally making this difficult by keeping her body as limp as possible. She just uses illness to get attention because her father neglected her... you've been there before, Ty Lee...

"Are you trying to make this ─ don't kiss me; you'll infect me!" Ty Lee nearly drops the princess, who somehow manages to catch herself, and Azula smoothes out her dress and sits back down on the bed.

"You're going to get this sick anyway," Azula says, her voice sounding as if she has been gargling nails, shrugging lightly. "Now that tea...?"

"I think we need to have a negotiation," Ty Lee says, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

"Over what? My tea and medicine? You wouldn't let your own wife die of a fever, would you?" Azula says bitterly, each word like a dagger. Ty Lee can only grit her teeth. It is like living in a melodrama by the Ember Island Players some days with Princess Azula.

"When I'm sick; you're going to wait on me hand and foot like this. Promise me that, and I'll make you your tea."

"I suppose I can make an exception for you," Azula says with a loud, pointed sigh.

Ty Lee kisses Azula on her lips. Their tongues intertwine and Ty Lee can almost feel the illness seeping into her body.

Azula better keep that promise.