Danced Until Sunrise
They were young. Young and beautiful and brash and bold mostly because they could be,. It was that wildness that drew three girls to an all night midsummer party meant to last from dusk until dawn. Dancing all night was not precisely anything that interested Azula, but she would give anything to escape the palace of late. Not to mention how she looked at brash and bold and envied it. She may be the most powerful firebender in the world butt she did not have the same raging fire within her hat her crush—Ty Lee—did.
It was a lovely night and Ty Lee danced in a pink dress as the festive paper lanterns doused her in shifting patterns of both shadows and light.
Mai and Azula stayed away from that light, away from the crowd of revelers.
Yet, Azula's eyes never left Ty Lee and Mai could not help but notice.
"Are you going to pull the all nightery with her?" asked Mai.
"I… I have yet to decide," said Azula.
"Permission to speak freely?"
"Do you do anything else?" spat Azula, crossing her arms and looking away from Ty Lee for the first time all night.
"You should dance with her. You're Princess Azula, Conqueror of Ba Sing Se, Heir to the Fire Nation. You weren't born to watch on the sidelines," said Mai, and Azula's face screwed up in confusion. Mai never was the type for eloquent speeches and it, of course, took the princess off guard.
A little dazed by the music and swaying, colorful lanterns, Azula took wo steps forward intending to dance with Ty Lee at least for a few minutes, if not until sunrise. It would… fulfill a number of forbidden dreams she tried to suppress.
Perhaps Mai was right. Perhaps she deserved to take what she wanted even if it could not last for very long.
Only moments past midnight Azula spun around, retreated, touched Mai's shoulder and feigned a dramatic yawn.
"I am going home. I need to sleep; a war hinges on my intellect," purred Azula. Mai did not show her frustration.
Azula may not have been born to watch on the sidelines, but she was not born to dance until sunrise either.
She was not born to love. Her father had told her that more than once.
As she strode way, she did no see Ty Lee's face fall, hopes dashed as any chance of dancing with Azula fizzled out like a dying candle.