(Theme Thirty-Six) Jasmine Tea

(as prompted by) ice cold desire

"Well, you picked my favorite tea, I'll give you that," Azula comments cautiously and Ty Lee simply blinks twice. She is trying far too hard to look innocent, on which Azula remarks, "Wait... you want something from me."

Ty Lee blinks three times and her small, comforting smile does not falter. Azula sits down and pours herself a cup of tea, realizing she has gotten herself into something very dark simply by agreeing to tea. In this secluded part of the palace where no one will hear her scream. Ty Lee looks equal parts terrified and terrifying and Azula is incredibly uneasy.

"I want to ask you for a parenting favor," Ty Lee finally blurts out before gasping in. She had forgotten to breathe, and Azula finds it cute, kind of like when a kitten forgets to put its tongue back in. But she cannot be distracted by her weak, wimpy feelings for her wife; this is clearly an important situation.

"Not my favorite kind of favors." Pause. "I find both life-saving and sexual preferable."

"I'm sorry. But you have to do this. Drink your tea." Ty Lee gestures at the cup and Azula suddenly loses her appetite for it.

"It's drugged isn't it? You're going to drug me," Azula sighs with a cocked eyebrow and slightly curled lip.

"No. Just drink it and don't ask so many questions. Try trusting me for once."

Azula snorts derisively, but she drinks her tea anyway. She supposes if Ty Lee wanted to incapacitate her she would not need herbs.

"I want you to talk to our daughter about things." Ty Lee squirms slightly and Azula's stomach turns to steel.

"Did she do something terrible? Because you know how I feel about reprimanding her; we really just need to let her grow on her own."

"Okay, your shitty parenting aside, Azula she's really confused as to how she was conceived." Blunt and startling. Azula struggles to swallow the tea built up behind her rosy lips."I mean, she knows about sex making babies but she doesn't... well... she doesn't really understand how that worked with us. And, while you don't necessarily need to go into graphic detail... I feel kind of bad for her."

"She doesn't need to know that." Brief silence. "Ty Lee, she was under the impression that you gave birth to her until she was seven and Zuko let it slip. She doesn't need to know. Wait ─ why is she even asking these things? She's ten; she doesn't need to know where babies come from."

"I was like eight when you told me," Ty Lee chimes, cocking an eyebrow.

Azula drinks her tea. It is scalding but she completely ignores it to avoid having to answer this. She needs to think of something, anything that excuses her from this.

"Why don't we ask Mai to do it?" is Azula's clever suggestion that Ty Lee responds to with a small frown. She looks very serious and it is an expression that makes Azula uneasy. "Alright, why do I have to do this?"

"Because I do absolutely everything else," Ty Lee says as if commenting on the weather. Azula is already uncomfortable and she does not even have to explain threesomes to her ten year old yet. There is still hope in this fight... probably.

"You are punishing me. This is cruel and unacceptable," Azula says sharply before regretting it. Agni, she wishes she had more ammunition in this.

"I'm not punishing you. I just don't... maybe we can do it together?" Ty Lee smiles hopefully, batting her eyelashes. Yet, Azula is not swayed.

"Ugh. That seems twice as awkward for everyone involved. Zuko, Zuko can do it." Pause. "That is if he has yet figured out where babies come from. I'm still not one hundred percent certain Izumi is his."

Ty Lee thinks for a moment. She sips her tea slowly, with a new expression of a general over a war table, and genuinely studies Azula, scanning for a weakness with focused, glinting eyes. Azula is trembling slightly, clearly realizing she is going to lose. And she must have known at some point they would have to explain this to their daughter.

"Maybe I'll ask your mother to do it." Ty Lee's protuberant eyes glitter with pure malice and joy.

Azula chokes on the tea she has been drinking far too fast. Her golden eyes flash and Ty Lee smiles smugly like a badgerfrog that just caught a particularly elusive spiderfly. Azula cannot fathom that she thinks she has just lost this argument. That is not how it works; Azula always wins.

"No. That is not acceptable at all," Azula says slowly, raising one clawed finger, and Ty Lee clasps her hands on her lap. "Did you just outsmart me?" Hesitation. "I let you win this to make you feel good."

"I know. Thank you for letting me win," Ty Lee says cheerfully and Azula takes a deep breath. All she can smell is jasmine tea and imminent discomfort.

"I am not prepared for this," Azula sighs, rubbing her temples weakly.

Ty Lee shrugs. "Your problem now."