#108: Spontaneous
Prompted By: Noble-Husky

Azula turns to her exhausted brother and states, "I am determined."

"Okay." He cocks an eyebrow.

Azula huffs. "Is that it? Is that all I get? I am determined. Are you not curious at all, brother?"

Zuko all but rolls his eyes. "Fine. What are you determined about?"

"I am going to be spontaneous."

"Why?" Zuko asks, sounding rather bored. Azula does not care about his interest level.

She scoffs at his ignorance and inquires coldly, "Did you somehow not hear the fight last night? We could've sold tickets."

"I assumed you were fighting about the teenage daughter who got knocked up by an idiot."

"Firstly, your teenage daughter got knocked up by an idiot. I had no part in conceiving her. Secondly, you assumed incorrectly. She thinks this whole ordeal is romantic and that our relationship should be more like those two morons. I raised a moron daughter. I am possibly the most intelligent person who has ever lived, and I raised a moron with a moron boyfriend. And my moron wife thinks I should be more like that peasant boy. Spontaneous."

Zuko says with slight lament in his tone, "I'm never spontaneous. Mai hates spontaneous."

"That's the problem, isn't it? You and Ty Lee made Zise and you made her a moron who likes spontaneity instead of stability and calculation. Your joint inferiority has ruined my legal child."

"It was not my idea. I am just a naturally helpful person."

Azula glowers.

[X]

In the palace living quarters that evening, Azula grabs the knife from Mai and whips it around in her hand. She then mimes slashing the dummy down low with one swift movement. Finally, she hands it to her niece, saying, "Sever their heels first, because if they can't walk…"

"They can't betray you!" finishes Izumi, a well-practiced pupil.

"That's right," purrs Azula.

Mai gives a sarcastic slow clap. She sarcastically says, "Such impressive parenting."

"Look," says Azula, watching Izumi pretend to slash training dummy heels. "Mine is almost an adult now, older than I was when I conquered an entire country singlehandedly. She isn't fun anymore."

Mai says, "Don't worry. You'll have another fun one soon."

Azula rolls her eyes. "Ty Lee officially hates me. I doubt we're considering anything of—"

"Not what I mean. Who do you think is raising your daughter's child? Certainly not her and her boyfriend. They'd have trouble pouring water out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You're going to be parenting this unborn child."

Mai remarks. "At least she knows who the father is."

"So optimistic." Azula wickedly smirks. "I'm proud of you."

Flatly, Mai demands, "Shut up."

[X]

Azula takes step one to becoming more spontaneous. Thankfully, Ty Lee is an easy girl to make happy. It probably is why they work well. Azula despises making effort to please other people—she solely focuses on herself at all times—and Ty Lee rarely complains about it.

Ty Lee stuck with Azula during worse times than these.

Azula hands her flowers, shoving them into the hands of her shocked wife.

"Is this a, uh, special occasion?" Ty Lee's eyelashes flutter. She does not know what to say. Azula does not do this kind of thing. She never has.

Azula's lip contorts into something slightly wicked and slightly loving. It makes Ty Lee's heart race at the speed of lightning. "I am being spontaneous. I saw flowers. I bought the flowers. Spontaneous. Isn't that what you want?"

"Yes," gushes Ty Lee.

Azula narrows her eyes and furrows her brow. "You're lying."

Ty Lee makes a small choking sound. "No, I'm not. I love flowers and you never get me presents like this."

"Then why are you making that face."

"I'm not making a face. I'm smiling."

"That is your lying smile."

"I don't have a lying smile."

"Ty Lee."

"It's just not spontaneous if you're planning on being spontaneous. Did you pass the flower shop on your way home?"

"No. I found the shop that carried your favorite and went out to purchase them. If anything, my excess trouble proves my love."

"I know you love me. I'm okay that you're not spontaneous."

"You were not okay with it last night."

"I bet you want me to do stuff I don't too. Love is about compromises."

"Ugh. I have work to do."

Ty Lee's smile fades while Azula walks away.

[X]

Azula goes to the last person she ever would expect for advice. Zise. They sit in her daughter's bedroom in the absence of Zheng while Zise makes a list of baby names in her messy handwriting. She never managed to make the characters as precise as either of her mothers.

Zise argues against Azula's critique of Ty Lee's rejection, "Well, you treat me and mom and Zheng like the village idiots."

Azula has no idea what that has to do with anything. "So what? I treat people how I think people should be treated and if they have a problem with that they should rethink their entire lives."

Zise squints at her list and ignores her mother's insanity. "Okay. Oo, baby names, what do you think of Huifan, Kagami, Lifin or Mangusha."

"The only halfway decent name in that list is Kagami. You know that, corret?"

"Zheng keeps turning down all my ideas for baby names. So, my strategy is to bury the cute names in the ugly ones so they sound better."

"You have a little bit of my father and I's tactical intelligence, at least. A little."

"I'm not stupid, mother. I know you're angry about my life choices, but they all were calculated decisions."

"You are simply bad at math."

"Yeah."

"Okay, I am here to ask you something. How are you spontaneous? How do you just do that?"

"I think you're wondering how I'm romantic. There's like a huge difference between spontaneous and romantic. Romantic is making pretty colored bathwater and rose petals in it."

"You shouldn't be doing that. You are far too young to be doing that."

"But it's a good idea. Every girl likes that. Even you would like that."

"I suppose."

"What do you think of Gembira?"

[X]

Azula stands relatively proudly in front of an expansive stone bathtub with a beautiful solid gold statue spouting steaming water. It would be quite ordinary if she did not color the water a lavender hue with the help of her useless pregnant daughter and fill it with beautiful rose petals.

Ty Lee walks in, examines it, and looks puzzled.

"What does this mean?" Ty Lee asks, afraid to hope it is a romantic gesture. Azula has not made one of those in years.

Azula smiles and bursts Ty Lee's bubble of mild hope. "That I am spontaneous."

Ty Lee forces herself not to sigh. Of course Azula is still on this. She will not stop until she wins. "This isn't spontaneous. You spent a lot of time planning this."

"I spent an hour planning it. And you weren't expecting it and I certainly had other plans tonight. I cancelled one of my vital meetings to do this."

"Okay… a little more spontaneous. Still…"

"Rose petals. Girls like you love rose petals and seashells and jewelry and I am doing my best. My best is always good enough. More than good enough. I am fantastic and you are unworthy of me."

"I'm not unworthy of you. I stuck by you."

"But you're not my type."

"I don't get it."

"Well, Ty Lee, to break it down in terms you can understand, you're a lot like this bathtub filled with rose petals. Very nice to look at, but not very deep."

Ty Lee whispers, rage simmering but not daring to reach the surface, "You know I'm not that dumb. You know me better than that."

"You know me well enough to know I did this for you."

"No, you did this to prove a point. You're mad because I said you weren't spontaneous and now you're spending all this time trying to prove me wrong. You don't wanna be romantic; you wanna be right."

"If it turns out well for you, why do you care? At least I want you to be happy."

"Please don't."

"What did I say?" snarls Azula, subconsciously sliding into a fighting stance.

"It isn't…" demurely says Ty Lee, "it isn't what you said. It's your tone. You always use that tone when we're fighting and it-it-it-it just makes things worse! Makes things worse!"

Azula huffs. "Now we are fighting about the way we are fighting."

"I just…" Ty Lee averts her eyes. "Azula, everything I say upsets you. I don't know what to do. I'm so afraid to even speak and—"

Azula kisses her fiercely. Spontaneously.

"Then let's talk less," she says, as the kiss breaks.

"Y-yeah." Ty Lee blinks.

"How's that for spontaneous?"

"It's a really, really, really, really, really good start." Ty Lee steps forward and gives Azula a slow and tender kiss.

Azula kisses her back, more fiercely, claiming and her lips trailing from Ty Lee's lips to her neck. They forget about the lovely colored bathwater because they are kinetic energy and crackling wildfire, nimbly undoing each other's clothes and sending them soaring across the room.

Ty Lee cannot close her eyes. It's exciting. She's inside of her, though not physically yet, but inside of her all the same. Every touch of her skin, every sweep of her tongue reminds her of a time when things were sudden and scary and wild and not halfhearted and colored by arguments and a child and a marriage.

Delicate fingers and sharp nails trace up the sensitive skin of her stomach to her breasts and Ty Lee hears the rattle of her melodic moan rattle against her ribcage as she rolls the peaks of my nipples between her forefinger and thumb.

Being slowly driven to madness by her savage lips and her skin is the most magnificent way to go insane. This is the sweetest savagery Ty Lee can imagine.

Not quite spontaneous.

But on fire.

[X]

After their semi-spontaneous tryst, Ty Lee sits slumped against the stone bathtub with her clothes in her arms pressed against her chest. Azula is beside her. Neither has spoken yet.

No reason existed. Or maybe it did but they feared it.

Finally, Ty Lee breaks the silence with, "We've been best friends for longer than I can remember, no matter how cruel you are or how flighty I am. So, I mean, like, I can't imagine a past without you. But I can't imagine a future without you either. I just can't. That's why I can't leave, that's why I never gave up on you for a second even when you… you were… you were crazy. I mean crazy. Flat fucking crazy and I had to clean you up constantly but that's because I can't live in a future without you in it."

"So, you do think ahead."

"Yeah. I like spontaneous. I really do. It's a fun side of you. But I like thinking about swing sets and cute firebending lessons and grandchildren too. I love that you think of me. I love that you include me in your plans now, because you never did in the past."

Azula ignores the mention of Ty Lee being part of her plans in life and orders, "Don't say grandchildren plural. I am officially revoking my spontaneous side if you ever insinuate that my child will reproduce with that half-wit peasant a second time."

Ty Lee giggles.