(Theme Forty-Two) Spies and Lies

(As Prompted By) LemonLimeGrandSupreme

It is the dead of the night in the Fire Nation winter, and two girls are alone in the dark streets of Upper Class Caldera. One of them has a braid and an expression on her face that could kill a king, and the other looks on the verge of tears, shifting her weight from foot to foot uncomfortably.

The moonlight reflects on the scene that could get very nasty. Ty Lee is on her absolute last break-up before she swears off men and women forever and reverts to casual sex. Even though she wants to get married so much...

"I'm really sorry, Ty Lee," Oren breathes, looking at her girlfriend of seven months with agony in her eyes.

"If you were sorry you wouldn't be breaking up with me," Ty Lee snaps, crossing her arms and fighting rage and tears. She has never been broken up with until she moved back to the Fire Nation two years ago. Nobody ever would even dream of breaking up with her, no matter what Azula twists the truth into being.

And now Ty Lee has been given the, it's not you, it's me speech several times and she has no idea what could be wrong with her.

"It has nothing to do with you," Oren says, wringing her hands. She looks almost as if she has a sword pointed to her neck as she slowly forces the words out of her rosy lips.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it," Ty Lee says, sticking her nose up in the air. Oren sighs weakly. "You are never going to do any better than me. I am hot, and funny and wonderful to be around. It's your loss."

"I know it is," Oren offers as she watches her now ex-girlfriend walk away.

Ty Lee thought she would marry Oren. So much for that.

She kicks the wall of a shop in rage as she rounds the corner and heads home.


"You're spying on her?" Zuko asks incredulously. He does not know what to say to that, or even how to fathom it.

He has walked in on Azula, questioned her, and her answer, while roundabout, scathing and evasive, led to the fact that she has been spying on her ex-girlfriend. Espionage is one thing in the dead of war, but to keep tabs on your ex is twisted even for Azula. Zuko is perturbed by it, to say the least.

"I'm not spying."

"You are holding reports from spies in your hands right now. I mean, Azula, I don't spy on my ex-girlfriend," Zuko breathes, narrowing his eyes at her with his lips slightly open. She baffles him in the absolute worst way.

"I have spied on Mai and Ty Lee for my whole life. It's no different. Ty Lee was just out of the reach of my claws while she was on Kyoshi Island. If you'd like to know what Mai is up to right now, I'm sure I have a report somewhere," Azula purrs and Zuko rubs his eyes.

"You're not bribing me with information on my ex-girlfriend's life. I don't need to know." Zuko does not want to be an accomplice in this.

"You don't need to know about her new boyfriend who's planning on proposing to her?" Azula asks, cocking an eyebrow and watching her brother simmer. Oh, it is such a lie. Mai is going to die with cobwebs in her panties at her rate of relationships, but Zuko's expression is priceless.

"Her what? Tell me." Zuko leans forward and Azula has to edge back slightly on the sofa.

"Oh, but that would be spying, ZuZu. Which is completely wrong and immoral," Azula taunts melodically, smirking. "It's such a shame that I know several ways to sabotage a blooming relationship since we broke up, but you're too above doing it. You know, I'll bring you as my plus one to the wedding."

Azula cracks her knuckles and shuffles the papers on Ty Lee, waiting for Zuko. She can almost count in her head. One, two, three, and...

"You know, it's not really spying when you think about it. It's checking in on people from your past to make sure they're okay," Zuko says, more to himself than Azula as he turns a palm up. Azula suppresses a smile. And a gross misuse of power, Zuko thinks, but he can't help it. "You know, who gave you the power to spy on others?"

"Same people I've always used." Azula shrugs.

"You have spies? How long have you had spies?" Zuko is trying his best to keep from caving in and demanding to know about Mai's new boyfriend. He knows he is better than that, and he should be happy that she is happy. Or whatever feeling close to happiness Mai experiences.

"Since I got tired of doing it myself. Hm, like twelve? Yes, around twelve," Azula says, shrugging. She is enjoying this far more than she should be. "Well, these reports have been very informative to me. I'm going to go collect my ex-girlfriend while she's on the rebound from Oren."

"Who's Oren?"

"Ty Lee's now ex-girlfriend."

"What happened between them?"

"I don't know." Azula shrugs and winks before getting up and walking away.

"You are the worst person in the history of ever!" Zuko shouts after her before feeling entirely ridiculous.

"I know!" Azula shouts back on her way out.


Ty Lee is out performing retail therapy when she meets fate and chance head on. One arm is draped in clothes from the boutique she is shopping in, and the other clutches bags from the past five shops. She is almost feeling better after crying herself to sleep over Oren.

It is at that moment that someone bumps into her. Literally bumps into her, and then catches the bags of jewelry Ty Lee drops.

"Thank you, uh..." Ty Lee looks up and cannot finish her sentence.

"Well, I never expected to run into you," Azula purrs, helping Ty Lee to her feet.

"Why are you out? Don't you have people for this?" Ty Lee asks, trying to sound bitter and detached, but feeling incredibly vulnerable to Azula's piercing, golden eyes. The only eyes like that Ty Lee has ever seen.

"I have escaped the palace for reasons I don't feel comfortable divulging in whatever this disgusting shop is." Pause. Azula examines Ty Lee and then furrows her brow. "You look really hurt. Are you shopping to make yourself feel better? Is there someone who needs to disappear?"

Ty Lee can't help but laugh.

"You know," Azula continues, "I promised you years ago that if some boy ever broke your heart, he might just... go missing."

"Azula, you know me really well, don't you?" Ty Lee asks, smiling faintly. "I keep thinking about visiting but I just... backed out every time I got close."

Azula shrugs. "It would've been nice to see you, but given the circumstances of our fairly nasty break-up, I can manage to forgive it. Look, why don't I take you out to lunch? Not as a date, of course. It's never too late to make amends with old friends. Although, I'm sure you've made plenty of them here in the Fire Nation."

"Actually," Ty Lee says, blushing from flattery but feeling the compulsion to be honest, "I don't have any."

"Well, I suppose I'll take the honor of being your friend. And, oh, this time I didn't even circulate nasty rumors to make it so you were forced to befriend me and Mai. How kind of me."

"You're very generous," Ty Lee says, with a sarcastic smirk.

Ty Lee probably shouldn't be walking out of this door as Azula tells the shopkeeper Ty Lee has no need to pay, and she shouldn't be reaching for Azula's hand as they turn the corner towards a block of restaurants and tea shops. They broke up a full year ago, after dating for five, and Ty Lee should know better.

But honestly, as she sits down at lunch and Azula says all of the right things... Ty Lee doesn't know better anymore.

And Ty Lee is very glad for the first time that she has lost so many relationships over the past year, as Azula draws her back in with a gravitational pull too strong to resist.

"I think I'm still in love with you," Ty Lee murmurs as the sun is setting.

"I could kind of tell by how we've been out together for five hours today. You don't really have the longest attention span, and I'm not a fan of─"

Ty Lee silences her with a kiss.

It isn't lying really. Azula does miss Ty Lee incredibly, and finds it impossible to move on. And Ty Lee evidently feels the same way even if all of her break-ups were orchestrated by the princess.

It isn't lying really. Sometimes the truth is worse than a lie.

And they couldn't hide from their feelings forever, regardless of spies and lies.