A/N: I haven't written a slumber party style story in ages, so I'm pretty excited about this. The prompt comes from my reality TV twin, hotlips29, so spot the references to any and all MTV shows where they stick people in a house, pay for all their alcohol and broadcast what happens. Love y'all, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the show.

Sidenote: never drink an entire bottle of sake and three tequila shots to impress a hot girl; in my personal experience it ends very, very poorly.


#109: The First Annual Mandatory Vacation Awards
Prompted By: hotlips29

The ocean whispers as it beats softly against the beach. In one of the many houses belonging to the Fire Nation elite, three teenage girls sit on the floor of a pristine bedroom with parchment, spilled ink and sleek brushes.

They are creating the Mandatory Vacation Awards, as one last little party game. For most of this trip, they were far from close. Then, they had quite the blast destroying a house and stripping down to almost uncomfortable intimacy a few days ago and suddenly the summer became about more than just a competition for a crown and a bitter secret between siblings.

Azula holds up the only clean brush remaining and speaks with grand authority to the two girls rendered demure by her presence. "What I am saying, is that all he does is cause problems and then lie around like the useless disappointment he is afterwards. I literally can't think of anything else original about my brother. Everything else feels overdone."

"Mmm. Okay." Ty Lee beams.

But Mai leans forward, shoulders hovering above her hips. "Surely you can think of something snarkier than that to award him with."

Azula laughs off the overbold comment with a lovely cackle. "I'm trying to be nice today," she lies. "Positive attitude Azula. I also have a better idea than Ty Lee, unsurprisingly. We all anonymously write out our awards and shake them up in a bowl or basket or vase or, honestly I do not care much about the choice of furniture. That is the only way this will work."

Ty Lee eagerly clasps her hands together. "I love it!"

"I think it's fine," says Mai.

Ty Lee grabs Mai by the shoulder and excitedly shakes her. Mai does not react to the sudden assault from a girl who looks like an overstimulated puppy-bunny.

"Fine is like the highest praise Mai has!" Ty Lee beams.

"And I have a few ways to spice up this game I can think of," purrs Azula, a devious smirk sneaking onto her face.

Her friends, her cronies, the closest people to her, lend their hands.

[X]

"Come on. Come play," dryly demands Mai of her disinterested boyfriend.

"No," grunts Zuko.

"If you don't play with us, I will have a headache that lasts two to four weeks," says Mai. Zuko scowls at her. "Now, do you want to play?"

Zuko sighs and clears his throat pointedly. "Well, how can I refuse a wonderful offer like that after all you've done to blackmail me?"

He follows Mai into the communal room and looks at the ominous basket sitting on the table, and the even more ominous partners in crime sitting beside it on the floor.

"What's the game?" asks Zuko, glaring at his sister. He said he would do it; he did not say he would openly enjoy doing it.

"You draw a piece of paper, and if you do what's on it, you receive your award," says Azula, smirking contentedly.

"Fine." Zuko sits down. "You go first."

"You are not in charge here."

"You. Go. First."

"Fine. I will make a fine example for you all." Azula reaches into the basket and withdraws a folded piece of parchment pinched in her manicured claws. She tosses her hair before she reads it, ready to win. But then she mutters to herself, "Seriously?"

Zuko begins to smile. "So, what do you have to do?"

"Flirt with the player to my right."

Ty Lee turns a giggle into a cough. Then she blushes. Then she struggles to breathe because she realizes she is the player to Azula's right.

"It's just like the other night. Just compliment m—"

"You are not my love guru, or someone I love. I just want my award." She briefly revels in Ty Lee's hurt expression before she begins to feel inexplicably sick about it. Azula turns an insult into a compliment in hopes of winning. "You are so sweet, you make sugar taste like salt."

Ty Lee takes Azula's hands in hers.

She bats her eyelashes, subtly licks her lips, and says sweetly, "Every day with you makes the sky a deeper shade of blue."

She locks eyes with Azula for a little too long. Azula feels like someone just punched her in the gut during a spar, leaving the winds knocked out of her and her heart imploding. Mai clears her throat, trying to save the stunned princess's reputation. She does not need to deal with an overcompensating Azula for the rest of the month.

Mai offers a cold, semi-forced laugh. "That's smooth. Smoother than Zuko at least."

He teasingly and softly punches his girlfriend's shoulder. She gives him a look that makes Azula stick her tongue out and feign vomiting.

She turns to Ty Lee and straightens her posture. "Give me my award."

Ty Lee reaches into the other basket with an extravagant flourish. She unfolds the paper labeled with Azula's smudged name.

"Aaaand," she begins before the crown prince interrupts her.

Zuko narrows his eyes. "These are all going to be cruel, aren't they?"

"Very," says Azula.

"Then why did you even agree to this?"

"Because I hate all of you more than I like myself," replies Azula in the sweetest tone she holds in her arsenal. Everyone abruptly appears uneasy.

Ty Lee reads through a stubborn smile, "Princess Azula: Most in Denial About Her Feelings."

Azula exclaims indignantly, "Most in denial about her feelings? What does that mean?" She whips around and glares at the woman holding the parchment. "Did you write this, Ty Lee?"

Princess Azula snatches it from Ty Lee's hand, making Ty Lee shriek and scream from the sudden papercut, and Azula burns the paper to ashes, letting those motes of dead fire sprinkle down through her slowly unclenching fist.

"Yeah. That's what I'm talking about," says Mai and Azula sneers rather intimidatingly. "You said to be brutal and honest."

Azula hisses, "I didn't think you would take that seriously. You're smarter than that. What feelings? What feelings am I in denial about?"

Ty Lee continues sucking on her wound and Zuko stares at her, trying to figure out a way to offer her help. No one ever taught him how to do that.

Mai says somehow flatly, "Oh, like you two haven't been eye screwing for this entire trip. For longer than that. Forever. It's getting painful."

Azula stands up. "I am going to get myself a drink. You may continue in my absence."

On her way out, she punches the wall so vivaciously that she leaves a dent. Everyone but Mai jumps or flinches at the sudden sound the wood makes as it breaks.

Zuko turns to his girlfriend and asks, "Why would you confess writing that about her?"

Mai shrugs. "Because I'm her best friend and have long learned that we are all going to admit what we said about her by the end of this night, so I might as well go first."

"That was smart." Ty Lee pouts briefly before returning to sucking on her bleeding, sore, agonizing, tiny wound. "Why didn't I do that?"

"Because you probably got the award for Most Oblivious."

"Shut up."

Azula returns at last, yet the silence does not break. She turns to Ty Lee.

"Your turn," she says, taking a sip from her off-white, sleek stone bottle of stolen sake. "Left to right. I decided."

"You know that stuff is strong. It's classified as a white liquor."

"Of course I know that. I know things. I know more things than you do."

"Well, I'm not catching you when you fall down the stairs."

"The feeling is mutual." Azula takes a soft sip and then offers the drink to Ty Lee. It makes Ty Lee's heart flutter wildly as she accepts the shared drink.

Ty Lee withdraws her card. "What was your weirdest phase? Ooo! Good one!"

"You wrote it," dryly remarks Mai.

"Still a good one." Ty Lee winks at her friends. "There was a phase in my life when I was like terrified of werebears. I was scared to go outside at night and everything."

"How old were you?" asks Zuko.

"Like fifteen." Ty Lee smiles as everyone laughs at her. She suddenly recalls explaining to Azula why she didn't mind people making fun of her. She liked making people laugh, making them happy, even if it was at her expense. Azula did not understand. "Okay. My award is…"

Azula reaches into the other basket and unfolds Ty Lee's designated card.

"Shallowest Flirt in the Fire Nation," she says, and she laughs. Ty Lee does not smile this time. "What? Does it hurt?"

"Nope. This game is really fun," lies Ty Lee. "It was like the best idea all trip!"

Azula bites her lower lip as she slowly lowers the used card down onto the table.

Mai breaks the uncomfortable tension by saying, "It's Zuko's turn."

He shoots a glare at his girlfriend but sighs and sucks it up. He did agree to play.

When he withdraws his card, he reads, "Kiss the prettiest girl in the room."

"Oh, we cannot be condoning incest tonight," purrs Azula, and everyone feels a brief relief that she regained her composure.

Zuko kisses Mai softly.

"Is he a good kisser?" asks Azula. "I doubt he is."

"He's fine." Mai shrugs.

"Just fine?" growls Zuko.

Ty Lee tries to save the day by directing all attention to herself. "I'm a really, really, really good kisser. I'm definitely the best kisser in the whole planet. On the whole planet?"

"On," says Azula somewhat smugly. For a moment, her mind slips away to the first time she truly kissed Ty Lee. It was one of the best moments of her life, but she never spoke of it like she does of conquering Ba Sing Se or the day her fire turned into flames so hot that they turned blue.

"Kissing isn't everything," says Zuko. "I'm great at sex."

"Oh?" Mai asks. "You're not gonna check with me before you say that."

"I'm great at sex."

"You're pretty good. I like it, and I like very few things," says Mai, bringing a blush to Zuko's pallid cheeks. Azula scowls, Ty Lee sucks harder on her papercut.

"You two are cute," says Ty Lee. "You better get married and have cute babies."

"I don't know a lot of things, but I did get a lot of lessons in courting ladies from Uncle. He was disturbingly good at it."

Azula laughs, spitting out some of the sake. She hates how it burns her throat, and she usually loves the burn. This is not fire, this is a vicious tang that no one should enjoy. She only drinks it so that no one will think she is to weak to do it.

"And you courted Mai. Awww." Ty Lee smiles.

"I know how to put her first and I know how to care."

Azula feigns a yawn. "No one needs this conversation to persist. Listening to Prince ZuZu talking about relationships is like listening to a sailor talk about flying an airship."

"Oh, like you know anything."

"I know I've kissed both moderately attractive girls in this room and you can barely, barely handle one of them."

"How have you made out with both of these girls? That can't be normal. They're your friends."

"That's what friends do, ZuZu. You'd know if you ever had one."

"I'm your friend. I'll kiss you, Zuko."

"I don't know if Mai would be okay with that."

"Go for it. I really couldn't possibly care less."

Zuko thinks for a moment it might be a trap, but then he decides that Mai is not the type of girl to lay one. She might even think this is fun.

Ty Lee leans forward and plants a sweet, friendly kiss on Zuko's lips.

An empty bottle of sake thunderously crashes to the sandy floor. Azula storms out, leaving everyone in the room speechless and Ty Lee breathless.

"Follow her," says Zuko. Maybe Azula thinks he knows nothing about relationships, but he knows his sister, and he knows why she left this room.

He only does not know why he never saw it before.

Ty Lee leaps to her feet and runs to the door. She hastens to follow Azula out onto the porch, where she continues her rush to the beach. The princess wobbles on her feet and trips down the stairs. Ty Lee leaps forward in a smooth acrobatic motion and catches her.

She helps Azula up and they stand on the cold sand.

Ty Lee whispers, "I didn't know I did something wrong."

Azula exclaims, words ever-so-slightly slurred, "You should have!"

"I should have," says Ty Lee, trying to be soft, trying to be gentle, trying to be a mere star instead of the blinding sun. "We do have something, don't we?"

"I don't know," says Azula. "I don't know at all. No one raised me to understand that kind of thing. I have no example to follow."

Ty Lee gently smiles. "I like that idea. No map. No idea where we're going. But maybe we could go there together."

"I know I'm drunk because you're sounding poetic. You. Ty Lee. The girl stupid enough to fall in love with me."

"I've never ever said I was smart. But I notice weird things about people. Like, when Zuko is mad, his veins come out of his forehead. Or how Mai's foundation doesn't match her neck. That kind of thing."

"I think perhaps I was…" Azula stops talking for a moment and Ty Lee's heart jumps into her throat. "Wrong. I am in denial about my feelings. Mai had a point, but she should've written that about you too."

Ty Lee giggles. "Yeah. She probably should've."

"Can we end this night without me burying your body to hide my shame."

"You're smart enough that you'd burn my body to hide the evidence."

"I am a princess. I do not need to hide evidence like some peasant.

"That's really reassuring." Ty Lee giggles. She wishes Azula would laugh, but she settles just for this soft conversation, not hardened by streaks of angry, regal ore. Right now, she is not Azula's subordinate; she is her friend, maybe more than her friend.

"Kiss me," orders Azula. "Prove your bold claim."

"I'm happy to," whispers Ty Lee. She begins to lean forward before she steps slightly back. "I didn't give Zuko my best kiss. I just gave him a little one. You deserve the best from me."

"I know it." Azula smirks.

Ty Lee leans in again and presses her lips fiercely against those of her princess. Their mouths open, their tongues war, they press harder against each other. They kiss deeply and intently underneath the moon, the scent of seaweed permeating the air, salt on their lips, the depths of the ocean mere feet away nothing compared to the depths of their secret passion.

Azula receives the best kiss of her life, moistened by moonlight, as if it came to her from the sea that surrounds her and her first love.