#10: Three Words (slave!Ty Lee AU)
Prompted By: Guest
Just one look from golden eyes was enough to seal Ty Lee's future. And that one stolen kiss was a particularly vicious form of torture. But what was dark and twisted blossomed into a beautiful forbidden love that made the princess glow to such a peculiar level that people wondered if they should ask.
A slave entertainer and a princess is not a pairing that is meant to be. Azula knows it is not, knows she should focus on securing the throne and not pursuing forbidden romantic interests. Then again, no matter how much she tries to embody lightning, embody the cold-blooded fire, and to be a weapon of war and the ideal crown princess... she is a sixteen year old girl.
It took surprisingly long for Fire Lord Ozai to discover his daughter's affair. He never understood her; he never bothered to understand her. But he did not want her touching his slave.
Azula moves through the palace like a shadow, light on her feet as any firebender would be. She inhales slowly, filling her lungs with the sickening aroma of dusk and archaic incense. Every night she burns as she slips to a secret meeting place. Beneath the branches of the ash white trees with ruby petals in place of leaves, that blow through the wind, sticking in her hair.
The pale moonlight illuminates her skin, her red mouth glittering as she sees that the object of her affections is already there. She wouldn't say she loves her, refuses to say she loves her. Azula attempts to deal with the conflicted emotions by casting them aside and focusing instead on being cold and strong.
It would be too human of her to love.
It almost amuses Ty Lee that Princess Azula tries to disguise the fact that she is in love. The entertainer does not hide it, she is irrevocably bound to the princess in more than slavery. But Azula tries to act like her heart of stone is unscathed.
"You always put on shackles a little too tight," the Fire Lord says to his daughter, pointedly after uncovering his daughter's activities, "because then, when they twist their wrists, it hurts a little. They never forget that they're slaves."
Azula does not respond.
Their lips meet once, twice, three times. Finally, they fall into a longer kiss, passionate, and concealed. Azula's heart beats and Ty Lee can feel it raging like the pulsing sun. They hold onto each other away from the eyes of others, hidden in bushes like peasant teenagers getting laid.
And Ty Lee continues with, "I thought you wouldn't come."
"Why?" Azula asks a little too sharply. The protuberant eyes of the slave girl glitter, her lips small, her face wounded. And Azula does not apologize, but she touches Ty Lee's hand lightly.
"Your father said you wouldn't." Silence. Swallow. Azula shrugs. "Happy birthday, princess."
"What else did my father say?" Azula demands, eyes flashing bright and bold. Rage.
Ty Lee swallows. She was hoping the volatile Princess Azula would pay more attention to the comment about her birthday and not her father.
"Nothing," Ty Lee murmurs, attempting to kiss Azula again. But the princess slips away. Hurt.
"Did you tell him about us?" Azula asks icily, her fingers digging into the damp grass and mud.
"Of course not." Her voice is small, as if in a box.
Azula starts to stand up and Ty Lee grabs her. She half expects to be burnt, but Azula does not move.
"What are you doing?" Ty Lee murmurs, tugging on her slightly.
"I'm going to kill him. I told you I would kill him if he ever tried to pry us apart."
And Ty Lee pulls her down into a second kiss. Her fingers slip across Azula's skin, breathing her in, like breathing in ash and smoke, like breathing underwater.
"You know you don't want to do that. You love your father," Ty Lee whispers into Azula's neck.
Azula is silent. She does not know if she loves him, but she knows that she loves Ty Lee.
"Are you trying to trap me into saying that I love you?" Azula murmurs mockingly with a wicked smirk. The mood changes almost entirely and Ty Lee is startled by it. For someone so smooth and calculated, Azula can be violently unpredictable.
"Maybe," Ty Lee lies, leaning against the tree.
"It's not going to work." Kiss.
"I wouldn't expect you to tell a slave you loved her."
Azula is silent. "It has nothing to do with that. I just don't love things by principle," she says, trying to sound airy and cavalier.
"Things. I'm a thing." She sounds so... sure of it and it disgusts Azula. Her father warps everything he touches. Everyone he touches.
The princess doesn't know what to say. She can't lose, she can't give in and admit that she...
"Iloveyou," Azula says quickly, the words forced out without her usual fluid, purring tone of smug haughtiness.
Ty Lee only smiles.
