Prince Zuko didn't know what he wanted.
He wanted to go. He also wanted to not go. Just turn around on his heels, back to his room where he'd close the curtains and go to bed.
Most of all, Zuko didn't want to be put into this situation, to be forced to make a choice. After yesterday's embarrassment, what Zuko wanted really was to sit the day out, to work out the maelstrom of emotions swirling about in his head. Perhaps to calm down a little after everything in the past 24 hours, from being caught in the wrong wardrobe to midnight talks to freaky dreams. Zuko needed time alone to unpack it all. Preferably that spot in the shade in one of the gardens, the one near the pond. But now he was going to end up with one more item of baggage to open and sort regardless of what he did. He'd either do this and accept whatever consequences that may entail, or run back to his room and forever wonder what he just said no to.
'I just told her you'd be interested, how far you take it is up to you'
And just what was her angle in all of this anyway? Just last night it was all about keeping secrets. 'It would cast doubt on all of us'. The second most annoying thing about Azula? She didn't make any sense. One day she'd do one thing, the next the opposite - only to claim later that both were consistent all along. It reminded Zuko of Pai Sho and he hated it. A series of seemingly irrelevant moves, tiles placed oddly until suddenly a surprise accent tile would lead to his demise. Why couldn't she just say what she was really thinking? So many games and secrets and lies. Was it all some kind of trick to produce an eyewitness of his deviancy? Something other than her word that she could use against him? He considered. It certainly wasn't out of character for her and Ty Lee to pull all kinds of pranks on him (a tendency that had only gotten worse in their teenage years).
And yet he still wanted to go.
No, it didn't make sense. It certainly wasn't smart or wise. But he wanted to. Could Ty Lee help him look as pretty as he had imagined? The thought was exciting, alluring, for reasons he didn't know why. Only an hour previous he had been scolding himself for thinking so - and yet, now it seemed possible. Having a guiding hand to help him avoid the pitfalls, to complement him on his successes and help him out of his failures. So much better than what he had done before, sneaking around and entering a sacred space where he did not belong. It seemed too good to be true, and perhaps that was exactly why Zuko was willing to believe it was so. That his sister was genuine in her concern.
Zuko was always quick to get up and try things again. To bite off more than he could chew even after failure after failure. Perhaps too quick. Perhaps that was what his sister was relying on, or perhaps... this would be the day it just worked out for him.
What did he have to lose? If it were really a trick, surely he'd fall for it eventually.
Except that thinking about things and doing them are two different beasts entirely. Zuko's feet were planted in the stone, exactly where they were when his sister had spoken those words. A pack of a thousand butterflies struggled to escape his stomach. The rational mind said one thing, but the deep recesses of fear in his mind spoke a different tune entirely. Conjuring up scenario after scenario of embarrassment and failure. What if he was just being played for a fool. What if Mother, or Father found him? What if everything went well. No tricks, nobody catching them... and she just laughed at his attempts just as Azula did? What if looking as he wanted to, looking that way, was just that: a dream?
The Crown Prince of the Fire Nation took a deep breath, and then moved one foot forward. And another. And another. One step at a time he progressed towards the dining hall as Azula had indicated. If anyone saw him, they might have wondered why he was walking the way he was, practically shuffling on the stone like a meek courtier on their way to see the Firelord. Though Zuko wasn't worried about that right now. Or rather, he didn't have time to be worried about that when there were a hundred other thoughts buzzing around in his mind like a swarm of tigermoths.
His stomach felt every vibration as he pushed open the heavy doors, entering with great reservation. He looked, side to side trying to pinpoint the pink girl in the room, but-
"Zuko!"
-she found him first, wrapping him in a tight bearhug that would perhaps rival that of actual bears.
The boy was in a daze. Confused. Sensory Overload. Everything was blurry - it was too late to back out now, and the fear in his mind reminded him of that, banging loudly on the drums of panic. It wasn't any one thing, it was an accumulation of things that made Zuko incapable of thinking. Dreams, lies, secrets, cloak-and-dagger meetings, fears, and yes, hugs all piled onto Zuko's senses like that of a thousand perfumes mixed together making him unable to smell anything specific.
The girl released him. "It's nice to see you!" she said with a smile on her lips, an outward disguise for the fact that in those grey eyes of hers she could see the swirling colors of the Prince's aura, just as she did with his sister (much to her dismay, often times). It was a vortex of turbulent emotions, something Ty Lee was familiar with on a very spiritual level. Some she recognized: anxiety, doubt, desire, fear, curiosity, echoes of surprise, and a few colors she couldn't quite recognize. And so she didn't wait for the boy to respond with platitudes of his own - for they'd surely come out stuttered and incoherent anyway. Under different circumstances, she may have asked him what was wrong - however sometimes being less direct about these things can be far more helpful. "Why don't you come sit down!" she offered, in a clear but otherwise welcoming tone. "I've already asked for Juice and Dim-sum. ...Azula mentioned that pomegranate was your favorite."
Ty Lee's calm voice helped him step back up to chewing reality whole. Zuko nodded and managed a faint smile. Pomegranate was his favorite - and he was both hungry and thirsty. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad after all? "Thank you" he managed, pathetically. Though if Ty Lee noticed the weakness in his voice she didn't say anything.
Meekly, Zuko sat down across from where Ty Lee had moved to seat herself. The assortment of dumplings and other sweet edibles that the pink girl had promised hadn't yet arrived. Instead stood a tall glass of dark red liquid, complete with a bamboo straw which Zuko began drinking through immediately, the sweet liquid playing a small part in easing his nerves. A small part - Zuko still found himself biting his nails between sips. Others found Ty Lee to be approachable, easygoing; she was certainly very kind to him. But to Zuko, the opposite was true. In truth, being around her (or even her friend Mai, whom he'd grown a liking to) made Zuko uncomfortable in a way that wasn't easy to describe. A shaking feeling in his chest and stomach.. a tinge of... embarrassment? No matter what it was it made him feel nervous, out of place, that much was clear.
"I won't bite, you know" Ty Lee assured, after setting down a pinkish drink that eerily matched her clothing, quite undeterred by Zuko's silence (Indeed, such things usually only embolden Ty Lee to press on). "Why don't you tell me what you've gotten up to today?" she asked simply, doing her best to shake off some unfortunate colors in Zuko's aura, and instead replace them with the lilacs of happiness and the sky blues and sapphires of peace.
Zuko breathed a sigh of relief. One, because it finally struck him how silly it was to think that Ty Lee would be the player in a big plan to expose his deviancy (...when was the last time she told a lie, anyway?), and two, because she didn't ask about that.
"Nothing." He scratched his head. "I kind of just rolled out of bed."
Ty Lee giggled. "Slept in? I wish I could do that." she said, thinking of her own tumultuous morning before taking another sip of her drink. "My sisters usually have me up by dawn."
While it couldn't have been particularly unfamiliar to Ty Lee, the thought made Zuko cringe. He couldn't imagine Azula being the eternal wake-up call on top of her usual infuriating sisterly self. Well actually, he could imagine it, he just didn't really want to.
"I think I spent most of my morning getting ready" she continued. "Oh and I guess I did a little people-watching in the carriage ride over" Ty Lee added with a smile, leaving out the argument she had with Ty Lin regarding a certain 'borrowed' hanfu, and a slight disagreement with Ty Woo about the last of the caramel-chocolate (she lost that one, as usual).
"Most of your morning?!" Zuko blurted out, dumbfounded. He couldn't have taken 10 minutes to get dressed and out the door. A morning spent on just getting ready for the day just seemed unthinkable.
Thankfully, the Prince's outburst only elicited a small giggle from the girl in front of him. "Of course! I had to do my face and my nails and there were a few kinks in my hair... can't go to a royal play-date without looking my best, of course!" she explained.
Of course. Zuko thought to himself, not exactly sure why looking one's best was required for simply coming over to see a friend. Though there must be something to it however, he thought, since he'd heard mother say almost the same thing on numerous occasions. Both to himself and Azula. He'd always just nodded his head and went with whatever was expected of him, though he never imagined there would be people who actually wanted to spend so much time and effort into looking nice and 'proper' just for some occasion. Zuko had never seen the point, no matter how many times Mother or Azula or a servant had given him the royal propriety speech.
"A play-date?" Zuko asked finally, having not been aware that one had been scheduled for today. Usually Mai and Ty Lee visited together, though recently it was becoming more common (much to Zuko's chagrin) for the pink acrobat to come alone. Regardless, Zuko typically found out one way or another, either through Mother gossiping about the most recent goings-on (as was her wont) or through Azula herself. This time however was a surprise to him, as far as he knew the next date was scheduled for next week.
"Don't worry!" she assured, misinterpreting the boy's reservations. "Azula said she had something super-duper important to show her father. You're not getting in the way of anything, really."
Their conversation was put on hold briefly by the clinking of porcelain as a red-robed servant came by with their food, placing it on the table with a bow, to which they received a bright "Thank you!" from Ty Lee in return. Zuko's attention was stolen from scheduling mysteries and redirected towards the various aromas of pastries, pot-stickers, and mild spices which he served to himself without delay. The prince may have been merely peckish before, but with the waning of the day's stresses came the resurgence of his appetite.
"Someone's hungry" Ty Lee remarked playfully.
Zuko's face went red again as he realized his own lack of proper etiquette. "I missed dinner" he said, wiping his face. "Last night, I mean." And lunch. And breakfast too, like usual he added in his head.
Another giggle. "It's okay! Azula said you'd be hungry. Guess now I know why." she said with a smile, taking a smaller plate for herself and plucking a few dumplings with a pair of chopsticks.
The acrobat leaned to her right, checking to see that the woman who'd brought their food had gone. "So..." her voice trailed off. "You didn't really tell Azula you wanted to meet with me, did you." she said simply, free to speak with much less restraint now that they'd be alone and and any potential for their discussion being eavesdropped upon was gone.
Zuko was taken aback - he hadn't ever seen Ty Lee ever show cognizance of Azula's duplicity. The directness of her statement seemed rather uncharacteristic of her, far removed from the usual giggling gossip, emotional auras, flowers and other such things that Zuko usually overheard from the pink girl.
A pause.
"No." he answered honestly, relieved that the girl in front of him wasn't a blind agent of his sister's machinations but also on some level concerned that his denial would bring an end to their time together, and any possibility that he'd actually get to follow through with what Azula had offered. Though on some level, Zuko felt in-control of things again, no longer being strung along by his sister, which was in it of itself a big relief.
"Oh" she sounded dejected.
"But..." Zuko struggled to find the words, his mouth having moved at much greater speed than his mind. "I..." he trailed off, almost regretting opening his mouth. "I still want to do it." he settled on, not wanting to say it but also not wanting to say nothing at all.
"Really?" she asked, looking up, not yet letting herself be excited but still with a faint smile showing.
"Yeah" Zuko answered quietly, not sure of his own words.
"I think it's really great that you want to play dress-up with me" she said honestly with a full smile, though somewhat careful to keep her voice down from its usual cheerful maximum, as Zuko probably didn't want anyone else hearing that. Though while she thought the reasons for such feelings were silly, she understood them completely. For some reason it simply wasn't ok for boys to indulge their imaginations by dressing up. Instead their make-believe was dominated by fighting and other such games. Which was endearing, in a lot of boys, though you could tell that some of them deep down didn't like it. Zuko's aura had always been different like that.
She leaned forward, still smiling. "Why don't you tell me what you want to be?"
The prince swallowed too soon and was rewarded with a rather unfortunate sensation in his throat. "I, uh.."
'I wanted to look like you'
The words he spoke to Azula still haunted him. A princess. He wanted to be a princess. Just like his dream, just like Azula.
Admitting that (even to himself) felt strange, even though only yesterday it was him who had taken the bull by the horns and actually made it a reality. But for reasons beyond Zuko's comprehension, admitting that very same thing to Ty Lee, what he had revealed to Azula was harder than actually doing it. Had he even been cognizant of his own actions that day? The memory of being discovered was crisp as the morning air, but everything before that was unclear, obscured by a mental fog. It wasn't a decision Zuko had really considered in such conscious detail. He had just done it.
It was almost insanity, to question why one would do such a thing when he himself had been the one to do it. You'd think that you'd consider such things as Princes aren't supposed to be Princesses and Brothers aren't supposed to want to be their sisters... before one actually goes ahead and does such a thing. And yet perhaps such cautious self-scrutiny was exactly why Azula was the perfect favorite and Zuko was the almost-forgotten laggard - the difference between well-considered judgments and haphazard actions that frequently landed him in all kinds of trouble.
Zuko decided he was going to let his judgment win this time. Just this once.
"I don't know" he lied, after downing his tall glass of pomegranate juice entirely. "I haven't really thought about it." Zuko spoke hurriedly, as he often did when spilling out untruths. It was a stupid lie. She's been sitting there the whole time, you idiot! She just saw you think about it
Though if Ty Lee noticed anything, she certainly didn't verbalize it. "That's okay!" she affirmed, again with that smile of hers that likely would have been contagious under different circumstances. "You don't have to be any specific thing, you can just try things out. See what you like!" Ty Lee offered, remembering all the times she'd tried on things she'd never done before in the hopes at finding a new and unique style. Something to distinguish herself, yet not improper so to fly under the parental radar.
Zuko let out a sigh of relief. "You can do that?" he asked.
Ty Lee giggled. "Of course! The three of us do it all the time." she affirmed, even though her interest in make-believe greatly dwarfed that of both her friends. "Why don't you come with me to the guest room? We have all kinds of things there for when the three of us have sleepovers." the pink girl explained.
"But don't you sleepover in Azula's room?"
"We do" Ty Lee nodded. "But Azula doesn't like it when we.." she paused to think up her next words. "Mess with her order. We're not allowed to use her vanity, unless for special emergencies!"
"Emergencies, what are-" Zuko managed to say before getting cut off by Ty Lee, her hand tugging at his wrist.
"Come on, it's just this way!" she urged, practically pulling him along.
Ty Lee led the Fire Prince by his hand out the way he had come, leaving the little food that remained on the table for the servants to clean. This time, however, Zuko's body didn't protest in going to where he'd been told, walking in lockstep with Ty Lee.
"What did you mean by emergency?" he asked, speaking quietly as if they were spies having a secret conversation.
She giggled again. "Oh you know, something smears or a broken nail or soy sauce on your lips..." she trailed off. "An emergency!"
Zuko didn't quite understand what she meant or how such things would constitute an emergency, but he nodded as they approached the door, which was situated not far from Azula's own room on the western wing of the palace. "So, the guest-"
Ty Lee put a hand over his lips. "Don't worry, Azula said that nobody is going to disturb us. It'll be just you and me" she assured him, patting his hair playfully (to which Zuko couldn't help but respond with a mild blush).
Inside, the curtains had already been closed, candles and lanterns lit. The room looked to be much like Azula's own, minus the meticulous order and plus a few stray garments. Though Ty Lee led him to the main attraction - the large ensuite had been practically converted into a prep room, with wardrobes and dressers practically spilling with things he couldn't imagine, and a vanity lined with all kinds of colorful bottles and vials, not to mention the largest mirror he had ever seen that started on the floor and went almost all the way up to the ceiling.
Zuko had the sudden urge to slap himself. Had he paid more attention and discovered this place, there may very well have been no need to try Azula's room: the error that got him discovered.
"I know, it's a lot" Ty Lee said, clearly bubbling with an odd mix of both enthusiasm and pride. "Do you see anything you like?"
Some things he liked, yes... and a lot of things he didn't even have words for. Garments he had never seen or heard about, liquids and powders he didn't recognize or fathom a purpose. Some of which were attributable to the pink girl in front of him, others clearly more suited for her friend Mai, and many more which were in between. There was probably enough stuff in here for someone to wear a completely different outfit for every day of the year, and still have some left over, Zuko figured. He had never seen or imagined this much clothing and accessory in one place.
"What are those?" he asked, choosing to sate his own curiosity first.
"Nail Polish" she answered. "You put it on your nails, you can make them have all kinds of a pretty colors!"
"And what about that one?" he asked, this time pointing to a more spherical bottle containing a nearly-clear liquid.
Ty Lee grabbed the bottle and pressed down on some kind of toggle, spraying some of it on herself. "It makes you smell like roses" she answered, though the words were mostly unnecessary now that the scent had reached the Fire Prince, who sniffed a few times to fully appreciate it.
"Do you like it?" she asked, noticing Zuko's own thoughtful expression.
He considered for a moment. "Yeah" he answered honestly. "I guess." Zuko finished, contemplating for a moment. He had heard the word perfume before, but seeing (or rather smelling) them in action was a different, to be sure. Smelling like roses, it had a certain allure to it that he couldn't quite place, one that he hadn't felt until right now.
"I suppose you didn't come here for roses, did you?" Ty Lee asked with a smile, again misunderstanding the swirling colors in the boy's aura. "Do you want to try something on?" she smiled. "I know it's probably a little girly for-"
"No" he interrupted. "I mean yes. I mean..." he blushed again. "I really did like it" he repeated, sensing that his uncertainty had dissuaded Ty Lee. It was certainly true that he had come here to dress himself with new and exciting things, but that didn't mean that that was everything there was to do.
"Really?" she looked up, startled by the admission - even moreso by the tone in his voice and shades in his aura confirming his words. "Sorry, I thought that um..." it was Ty Lee's turn to blush, for once not having all the words she felt she needed. "Would you like it?" she offered.
Zuko was taken aback for a second, not immediately realizing her meaning. "You mean I could, uh. That's okay?"
Ty Lee smiled. "Sure! We have plenty of spares." she gestured to the overflowing vanity and its various drawers with a giggle. "Plus it's always nice to help a girl out!" she said cheerfully, before her face scrunched up like a puppy. "...friend, sorry." Her cheeks again flushed with red as she watched the colors in her friend's aura explode with opposing tinges of every shade.
Zuko did his best to fight off the blood rushing to his head and the weird sensation in his stomach. "Thank you" he managed, somehow very pleased with the outcome. He hadn't expected to take anything back with him, but now that the reality was right there in front of him he couldn't help but feel elated at the prospect.
Though his mind nagged at him to do what he came here to do, his attention had been snatched completely from the array of clothing behind him to the assortment of bottles in front of him. "Do you paint your nails?" he asked. While Zuko knew that his sister at one point colored hers scarlet (though she stopped some time ago, for some reasons), and he could recognize the Mai's midnight black anywhere, he hadn't previously paid attention to Ty Lee's own nails which were at the moment free of any polish.
"Sometimes." Ty Lee answered. "Not as much as I used to. If you do a pattern it can be a lot of work when one of them gets chipped." she explained, remembering that when she was younger her and Azula used to paint eachother's practically as a tradition - until one day they stopped and Ty Lee was made to do it on their own.
"What do you mean?"
"Mmm?" The pink girl tilted her head at Zuko's inquiry, before breathing in sharply. "Oh! Um.. the polish as very hard, and sometimes some of it breaks off and you have to do it over again." she explained. "It happens a lot during practice. And..." her smile turned into an almost guilty grin. "I'm a little bit of a nail-biter" she admitted.
Zuko let his hands fall to his side. "Me too" he confessed, somehow reassured by their shared tendency.
"So..." Ty Lee began, sensing the reason for his line of questioning. "Would you like to try? I can do yours, show you how it's done!" she offered, excited at the prospect. She hadn't done a friend's nails in forever!
"Is that okay?"
"Of course!" the pink girl squealed, already buzzing at the prospect. "If you like how it looks, I can even give you some to keep! All you need to do is pick a color" she gestured to the scattered array of taller, thinner glass bottles on the vanity.
Of all the difficult things Prince Zuko imagined he'd be doing today, picking a color wasn't one of them. He didn't want to go with the traditional reds and crimsons of his country, though that was what he had always been given to wear for the most part. What would his nails look like in green? or orange? or violet? He could scarcely imagine them any other way they were now. What if he picked the wrong one?
"Don't worry!" Ty Lee assured, noticing the disturbance returning to his aura as the boy tried to select his first color. "If you don't like how it looks, you can always take it off and try another."
"What do you think would look good?" he asked, still not sure what to choose.
"Well..." Ty Lee considered, running her fingers across the colorful caps of each bottle. "Why not rose!" she exclaimed, picking out a bottle and holding it up for him to see. "It would match the perfume." Ty Lee explained.
Zuko examined the color, which appeared to be some kind of cross between pink and purple. "Aren't roses red?" he asked, curious but definitely not disapproving of the color.
"Not all of them!" she squealed. "Roses come in all kinds of cute colors. Reds and purples and pinks and yellows and whites. You can even get ones that are almost black! Mai really likes those. You should come with me to the Ilah gardens sometimes, there are so many flowers and trees with pretty blossoms. Every once and a while I see a flower that reminds me of a friend and I take it with me! It's so quiet there too, you can do anything you want. Azula and I used to go there all the time until she lit that rhododendron on fire..." she trailed off, barely giving Zuko a chance to think. "Well, do you like it?"
"I think it looks nice" he answered honestly, though still processing all of Ty Lee's information. Rose. It sounded delightful. Pretty. Matching. Like something his dream-self would have. Not traditional, though not flamboyant. "I want to try it"
Ty Lee pulled the chair in front of the vanity and then another from somewhere else in the room for herself.
"So, what do you think you want to wear with this?" she asked, pulling out some kind of rough metal and grabbing his left hand, running it across the edges of his meager nails presumably to smooth them down. "Rose will go with a lot of things!" she said enthusiastically
"I'm not sure" Zuko replied nervously, watching Ty Lee go to the other hand once his left nails were equal in length. As nervous as he was the first time she asked, Zuko felt at ease enough to actually give an answer - or part of one, at least. "There's a color, I don't know what it's called, but I know what it looks like." he explained. "It's sort of like green, but it's not"
The pink girl finished filing his other hand and opened the 'Rose'-colored bottle, releasing a sharp scent that quickly permeated the room. "Ooh! I'm great with colors." she exclaimed, grabbing his left hand again. "Hold still."
Prince Zuko watched as Ty Lee spread the lacquer across his thumbnail, immediately giving it a purple shine. He almost wanted to examine it from multiple angles, to get a feel for how it would look, but he managed to comply with her request to stay still.
"So" Ty Lee spoke again. "Is it sort of a darker green or a lighter green?"
"More of a darker one." he answered.
Ty Lee progressed to his middle finger. "Does it look like lime?" she asked, dipping the brush in a second time for a thicker coat.
"Not really."
"Hmm. What about Deep-Sea Green?"
Zuko refrained from scratching his head. "What's that?"
"Umm" she searched for the words. "It's the color you get when the sea has a lot of that plant stuff, umm" she struggled to remember what they had taught her in school. "Algae. I think."
He nodded. "Oh. Um, no, it didn't look like that."
Ty Lee smiled. "What didn't look like that? If it exists I probably know what color it is!" she exclaimed as she worked to finish off the pinkie finger.
"Oh, um..." Zuko trailed off, privately scolding himself for not thinking about what would happen if Ty Lee asked about where he saw it. "I don't remember."
Ty Lee decided to ignore the deceptive violet in his aura. "Okay. So did it have a kind of brown mixed in?"
"Yeah"
"What about Hazel?" she asked as she finished applying the polish on his left hand. "Ooh. Don't move it yet." she cautioned.
Zuko did his best to comply despite the urge to scratch an itch on his nose. "I'm not sure."
She paused, putting down the bottle of rose for a moment and reaching for another. "Like this?" she asked, holding up a bottle of hazel-green nail paint.
"Yeah!" He exclaimed. "Almost exactly like that." Zuko looked at the bottle quizzically, and then back at Ty Lee. "Wait, why does it shine like that?"
"Oh, umm." she searched for the long word that Azula had told her. "It's Ear-rih-dess-ant" Ty Lee sounded out each syllable while twisting the bottle in her hand to demonstrate the effect, causing the light from the bottle to shimmer and change in hue. "It means it changes color a little depending on how you look at it."
Zuko had never seen such a thing before, it was almost mesmerizing. "Is mine... iridescent?" he struggled briefly with the new word.
"Just shiny!" Ty Lee smiled, putting the bottle of hazel back in its place and turning her attention to the other hand. "I think it suits you too."
"Really?"
"Yeah!" she answered honestly as she worked. "It reminds me of your Aura, kind of. It kind of looks like a rose sometimes." Zuko blushed. "It has a little of that now! I've never seen anything like it." she explained, having truthfully given a decent amount of thought to Zuko's mystery aura. Every other color she'd been able to identify, except this one.
Zuko went silent for a moment as Ty Lee continued her work. He had heard of her and her auras before. Azula certainly made a point to declare such an ability impossible, and it made sense. Could someone really see emotions, thoughts? It seemed a little far-fetched for Zuko. Despite that his curiosity got the better of him.
"Can you really see them?" he asked. "Auras, I mean."
"I've been able to see them since I was little." she answered. "Though it's okay if you don't believe me. No-one does. Not even Azula" Ty Lee reassured, not looking up from Zuko's right index finger.
Zuko was relieved by such a comment. He really wasn't sure he really believed her. Zuko used to play make-believe all the time, to pretend he had special powers. Everyone did at some point. Except Azula.
"What's it like? Can you read people's minds?" he asked. Somewhat out of curiosity, somewhat out of skepticism, and... somewhat out of fear.
"No." Ty Lee said simply, before looking up as she finished with the last nail on the right hand. "It's more like reading energies. I can tell how you feel. Um..." what was the word. "Empathy."
Zuko attempted to withdraw his hands, only to feel a surprisingly firm grip stop him in his tracks. "Hold still, silly! I'm not done."
"But-"
Ty Lee shook her head. "I need to apply a top coat. And I..." she grinned. "I spilled some." she pointed to some splotches of color on the skin bordering his nails. "...without the top coat, they won't have a full shine, and they won't last as long."
Zuko's golden eyes widened. "Wait." he urged, suddenly realizing that he might have to go to dinner with this stuff on his fingers for his whole family to see. "I'll be able to take this stuff off, right!?"
Ty Lee giggled again. "Of course!" she reassured, grabbing a similarly shaped bottle of clear liquid. "I'll give you a bottle of remover and some pads after we're done. You can take it off any time." she explained, not even bothering to ask why someone would want to take off polish that looked so pretty on them, and instead moving towards his left hand to apply the next coat.
"So..." he trailed off. "You can see energy?" Zuko asked, more as a hook for more conversation than an actual question.
"Yep! Each energy has its own different color. And when they mix together, they mean different things." she explained. "I try to make my aura very pink! That one means you're really happy." Ty Lee smiled, as if to somehow demonstrate the emotion. "Though there are many others. The crimson of passion. The blood red of anger, and the indigo of fear! Some of them are scary, some of them are happy, and some of them are in-between. I try to make all my friends have very happy colors!"
Zuko let out a genuine smile. "What color is mine?" he asked
Ty Lee altered her gaze until she seemed to be staring right through him. "Yours is a whole mix of colors." she replied. "I see white, yellow, rose... a little bit of lime and lilac" A pause. "And indigo. It's very turbulent." Ty Lee looked up from Zuko's hands, having finished applying the top coat. "Don't touch anything." she instructed. "It needs to dry, otherwise any touch will ruin it."
"What does rose mean?"
"I don't know" she said. "I've never seen it before."
Zuko took a moment to consider briefly. "Does that happen often?"
"Not really" Ty Lee admitted. "I've figured out every other color. Sometimes it's hard to tell what two colors together means, but I've only ever seen rose in your aura. It's covered up by the other colors, so I can't really tell what it means."
"And you've only ever seen it in me?" he asked, that particular piece of trivia seeming more fiction than fact.
Ty Lee looked down. "Well..." a pause. "I might have seen it once before. But I'm probably misremembering!"
"Whe-"
"Really, it's not important. It was kind of silly of me to think I had figured every single color out." she lied with a smile. "Do you like your nails?"
Zuko gave Ty Lee a funny look before angling his head down to view his freshly-painted nails. They did look good. Much better than Zuko had expected when Ty Lee had first explained the process of nail-painting. She had been right about two things, certainly: the color did suit him, and the second coating definitely added a sheen to them which was pleasing in a way that was difficult to describe. Like the surface of a mirror, lacking totally in imperfections.
That, and he had never had anything of that color before. It was bright and pretty.
Zuko nodded. "I think they're great." he said, still turning his hands length and widthwise to see how it looked from different angles, finding faults in none of them.
Ty Lee gave a wide smile at that, refraining only barely from giving him a big hug. "Great! I'm so happy we found something for you." she said, positively energized by the outcome. "...unfortunately by the time they dry it'll be time to wrap-up, sorry." she apologized, feeling bad that she had encouraged something that would keep Zuko from enjoying all the aspects of a good game of dress-up. "But if you want I can try a few things on to show you how they'd look. Didn't you want to try something with hazel?" Ty Lee offered.
"Oh" Zuko sounded more disappointed than he was. "Well.."
"I know, it's not the same" she admitted. "But we can always do this again later, though! Azula said if you liked it we could make it a regular thing." Ty Lee offered, standing up and beginning to sift through some hangars.
Zuko's ears perked at the notion. "...she did?" he asked, almost disbelieving that she would say such a thing. It was as if Azula had woken up today a different person entirely.
"Of course! I love dressing up and giving makeovers." she exclaimed with a wide smile. "And Azula said you wouldn't have wanted to do it with her, soo... you get me!"
Zuko nodded, not really feeling he had his question answered, but also knowing asking again probably wouldn't get him a better one. Everything else aside, he was very grateful to Ty Lee for having been given the chance to do this. Learning to look like a princess couldn't happen in one sitting, he supposed. Knowing there would be future sessions for him took a lot of the pressure away. "I'd like that" he said, looking down at his nails again.
"Great! Maybe we can find some time next week? Mai and I are coming to sleep over again." she planned it out in her head as she pulled a garment out of a dresser drawer. "Hmm. Not too many greens like that in the Fire Nation" Ty Lee mused, holding out a shawl with frilled ends, its color not dissimilar to the one in Zuko's dream. "But I did find this. It'll go fine with your nails or what you're wearing now but..." she held it up in front of them. "It clashes when you have all three."
"What do you mean it clashes?"
"Oh! Umm..." Ty Lee considered for a moment. "The colors don't go well together if you were to have all three of these. The red and the rose are in harmony, and the red and the hazel are in harmony, but they're not the same kind."
The mention of harmony reminded Zuko of Pai Sho, a game that perpetually hounded him with its complicated rules and strategy. Jasmine forms harmony with Lily and Rhododendron, but clashes with Rose. Pay attention, Prince Zuko. He always managed to forget what went with what no matter how 'simple' everyone insisted it was. They placed the six flowers in a ring and showed him how each one went with the ones to each side but it never 'clicked'. Zuko always forgot by the next week, though he asked it to be explained again every time anyway.
"What types are they?" he asked not really expecting to understand the answer, his mind having already been overheated from all the previous talk about colors and auras, but curious nonetheless.
"Well, Rose is really close to red, but is sorta the opposite to hazel" she explained, happy to delve into the complicated art of matching colors. "Likes and opposites like being together. But not at the same time. It creates an imbalance, sort of."
Zuko resisted the urge to scratch his head. "Opposites go together?"
"Of course! Think of it like..." Ty Lee smiled, choosing just the right analogy. "Two friends. Opposites might fight sometimes, but they make up for each other's weaknesses, because whatever weakness one has the other has the same thing as a strength! They make a good team because they fill eachother's gaps. Like yin and yang." she explained, wrapping the shawl around herself and twirling in front of the mirror.
"And if there's a third friend, they won't be balanced anymore?" Zuko clarified, almost surprised he understood Ty Lee's analogy at all.
"Very good!" she praised. "It would be like having too many pieces in a puzzle. You end up with extra ones which you don't know what to do with."
Zuko nodded, feeling extremely pleased with himself that he understood something of this nature. "So I guess I need to pick a different color, huh"
"Don't be silly!" Ty Lee teased. "You can pick as many different colors as you want! My favorite color ever is pink, but I wear other things all the time. Just whatever I feel would look good on me. So, if you really like this color you could wear something greener to match it, or you could use a different color on your nails. And then, another day when you want to have red and rose together, you just leave your hazel things in the dresser."
"Oh" Zuko replied, feeling silly all of the sudden, that same feeling he got when he asked which tiles jasmine went with for the umpteenth time. "Sorry for asking so many stupid questions. I'm uh, not very good with these types of things." he apologized, self-conscious about the fact that almost the entire time had been spend answering his queries regarding colors and auras and strange bottles on the vanity.
She smiled. "Aww, don't be sorry Zuko. You can ask as many questions as you want! And they're not stupid, everyone asks these questions at some point." she assured him, remembering that not too long ago it was her who was studiously asking and reading so she could look just that little bit prettier than her sisters, and later the girls at the academy.
Ty Lee examined the boy's aura noting that bright yellow hadn't yet fully dissipated. "...if it makes you feel any better" she continued. "Azula once asked me all these questions too! You gotta promise to never tell her I said this, but I used to put summer outfits together for her because she didn't know what to do with things that weren't red" Ty Lee giggled.
The thought couldn't help but make Zuko smile. "Really?"
"Yep! Everyone has to start from somewhere. You can't learn if you don't ask!" she exclaimed, happy to see the yellows of anxiety vanquished from her friend's aura.
And, just as Ty Lee had surmised with her sixth sense, Zuko definitely felt more at ease from that point on. The fear and indecision he had felt in the palace courtyard felt far away now, replaced by a slow-growing contentment as she showed him garment after garment, each one different than the last. Yukata. Shawl. Blouse. Hanfu. Obi. Mantle. So many words, so many variations that Zuko had never previously paid much mind too. It was captivating in a way that he didn't know how to describe.
Zuko had been wrong to compare it all to Pai Sho. Compared to this, Pai Sho was crudely simplistic. He had never heard so many unfamiliar things compressed in such a short period of time, only to realize that they were barely scratching the surface. Not that Ty Lee didn't do a very good job at breaking things down into terms he did, understand (quite the opposite, she explained things better than most teachers at the Fire Academy), just that Zuko felt he was being given insight into a whole new world he never even knew existed. It had its own language and its own culture that he wanted nothing more than to learn more about (though Zuko knew that he'd probably forget half of what he'd been taught by tomorrow). He found himself asking for things to be repeated and elaborated on when, had the subject been something else, he may have nodded and pretended he understood.
At the very least now he felt like he understood on some level why Ty Lee had spent most of her morning getting ready. Just the 'basics' were enough to make his head spin already. Did every girl lead a life so complicated? Zuko idly wondered. Not that he didn't have an eye for the results, but he couldn't imagine dedicating hours to things such as these when ten minutes was more than enough to make him impatient.
As everything drew to a close Zuko's curiosity was beginning to be supplanted by a growing disappointment. He'd been hoping there'd be some quick way, a lever he could pull, to make him look the way he had in his dream. It wasn't really that surprising, he supposed. If it were really that easy for a prince to look a princess, surely he would have seen or heard of such a thing before. Was he really ready spend that much time, learning all of this, just to dress up every once in a while?
"Hey, so..." a voice drew him from his thoughts. "It's time to go, sorry. Azula said it was important that we didn't go over a couple hours" she continued, much to the relief of Zuko who by this point was having a hard time keeping up. "But it's been fun!"
"Yeah." Zuko agreed, his tone not matching his words despite his honesty. "Thank you."
"You're welcome!" The Fire Prince stood awkwardly as Ty Lee reached for a few bottles and grabbed something out of an overflowing drawer, placing it along with a few other items in a box before holding it out to him. "Here you go!" she said cheerfully. "There's some remover in here too. When you want to take the polish off, add some to a cotton swab and use it to rub your nails." she explained. "Though, you should keep it. It looks really pretty on you"
Zuko felt like blushing again as Ty Lee complimented his nails for a second time. Even though he hadn't done anything himself to achieve the look his hands now bore, he felt an odd sense of pride in knowing that there was at least one part of him that looked the way he had imagined. The negative thoughts that had visited him moments before dissipated.
"Oh and one last thing" she said as she opened the door for them to leave. "If you try to put on some polish yourself, make sure you don't do it over the carpet or any kind of fabric. It's really hard to get out!" she exclaimed. "And if you want a good place to hide the box... try putting it in between a bunch of clothes you never wear in your dresser. That's how I hide things from my sisters!" she explained as they walked through the guest room.
"Thank you" Zuko repeated, extremely thankful for the advice despite the flickers of uncertainty in his voice. It was as if she had read the concerns right out of his mind.
The two of them walked out of the guest room entirely, Ty Lee closing the door behind both of them. "Well, guess this is goodbye!" she said with a smile. "It's been really fun." she said, before twirling around and walking back the way they had originally came.