#115: Double Proposal
Prompted By: FanfictionVillainess

Azula singes a branch and throws the crumbling smolders to the ground before snuffing it out lividly with her feet. She may be beyond angry, but she is not going to get blamed for starting a forest fire just outside of Caldera. Her brother would lose his mind. She scowls as Ty Lee touches her arm from behind.

The former Kyoshi Warrior suggests in a light chirp, "Well, on the optimistic side, getting lost is a good way to find yourself!"

"Shut the fuck up," snaps Azula, shaking off Ty Lee's grip. "Can you please be negative about something for once in your life?"

Ty Lee rubs her lips together as she momentarily contemplates her answer. "Well, this is inconvenient."

"Inconvenient?" screeches Azula, smoke billowing from her clenched fists. "We are lost in the forest in the middle of the night and you can only say inconvenient?"

Ty Lee's heart thunders in her chest as she says, "Inconvenient because I was actually going to… going to propose to you tonight."

"How dare you!" says Azula, fire in her golden eyes.

Ty Lee holds back tears. Her heart drops into her stomach. All she can do is stammer out, "Uh…"

"How dare you steal the thunder from my proposal! I was going to propose to you tonight!"

Ty Lee's eyes light up. "So, you do want to marry me? I was so afraid you'd say no. Everybody said you would."

Azula shrugs and coolly replies, "Well, I am not going to allow you to marry some other bitch."

Ty Lee glances up at the moon above the labyrinthine trees and then suggests, "Maybe we can compromise and both do the proposals we planned. We obviously have the time."

Azula huffs, but she does agree.

"You first, Ty Lee."

[X]

Ty Lee first realized she wanted to marry Azula long ago, while in Ba Sing Se. She had taken on the duty of unraveling the princess from her disguise before bed.

"Do you think we can do this?," said Azula. Ty Lee's eyes widened; she did not expect anything like that to come from the princess's lips.

"With you in charge, yes."

"Do you really believe that or do you say it because I am the princess?" Azula's eyes bored into Ty Lee's as she spoke, making the latter girl tremble.

"I say it because my whole life I've been second best, and even though I accepted it, I was never happy with it until I met you. You're like the most incredible person I've ever known. I'd do anything for you."

Azula laughed and remarked, "You speak boldly. I could order you to your death."

"And if you wanted that, I would go. I'm loyal until my last breath, Princess."

"I believe you, but I… I fear I cannot be that loyal to you."

"I don't expect you to be. You just have something about you that would make anybody follow you to Hell and back. And, yeah, sometimes someone else makes me feel special and I start to wander. A flirty boy or girl or something. But I would always want to be second to you instead of first to somebody else."

"I love that about you." Azula took a deep breath. "And I think I love you."

Ty Lee wanted the perfection of that moment to last until the end of her days.

[X]

In the forest, the filth, and the mud, and the fallen leaves, and the dim lighting, Ty Lee gets down on her knees and pulls a beautiful betrothal bracelet from her purse.

"I remember the first day I met you. You were so beautiful, and knew all the answers in class, and were so creative and commanding. I was super scared but you had nobody but Mai and I wanted to talk to you. It was a little thing. I don't even really remember the dumb game we played after school. But big things have small beginnings. I know giving you this bracelet is small, but I really hope it's the start of something big. Please, take this bracelet and I'll be yours forever, and love you and take care of you until the end of time."

Azula slides the bracelet on, her expression unchanged but her heart fluttering wildly. She has to compose herself before she can speak.

"A lovely proposal, I suppose. But mine will outshine it."

That is high praise coming from Azula, and so Ty Lee blushes.

"I never doubt you and your charm." Ty Lee smiles.

Azula removes Ty Lee's bracelet from her pocket.

[X]

Azula first realized she wanted to marry Ty Lee on a fairly ordinary day a few years after the war.

They were fighting and that was not abnormal with Azula's moods. One day she would be as brilliant as the sun and the next she would be a violent, brutal wildfire. Ty Lee had become used to it.

But today was different.

Azula took it too far. She broke Ty Lee's only memento from Kyoshi Island while screaming at her.

Ty Lee snapped and flew into a rage to rival her girlfriend's.

Azula watched her with a cold frown. She knew Ty Lee would crawl back but the alien emotion of guilt hurt her deeply.

"If you're so pissed, get out! This is my house!"

Azula threw Ty Lee's purse at her. Ty Lee did not cower or fight back or storm away; she set her hands on her hips.

She took a deep breath. "I'm not leaving you. Not this time. Not any time. Never again, and nothing you do can make me change my mind."

Azula bowed her head.

She knew then she would make sure Ty Lee stayed, that they would be together until the end of their days.

[X]

Azula has knelt to very few, but tonight, for the first times, she kneels to Ty Lee.

"My father used to say something. Before I would go out to fight, he would remind me that only my actions will be remembered, and he asked me to choose them well. I believe with my entire soul that this action is chosen well. Take this bracelet, and we will fight by each other's side, we will reign over whatever we have, and we will be in love until our dying breaths."

Ty Lee's hands tremble so much that Azula has to forcibly slide the bracelet onto her.

Ty Lee takes Azula's hand and helps her to her feet. The bracelets shimmer in the pale moonlight as they come close to touching.

"I've never been so happy to have gotten lost in the woods."

"Neither have I," admits Azula with that small smirk Ty Lee loves dearly.

They kiss, moving into an embrace, here, together, in the middle of these deep dark woods.