Author's Disclaimer: I don't own a thing belonging to "Avatar: the Last Airbender." Nada thing!
Author's Notes: Here we are nearing the end. Stay strong, my lovelies.
Maraghoul: Thanks again for forming the story's outline with me.
QueenTyzula: For all the nudges of inspiration, thank you.
CharlieBarrow: Thanks for all your help.
All guests: Actually, that idea is a good one about that one flashback. We'll see!
"Stoking the Fire"
Chapter seventy-one "Exhausted Aftermath"
Hours passed.
The sand was getting cold and so was Azula. She finally stopped hugging her elbows, valiantly trying to keep warm through her bending, and got to her feet. Her legs shook and trembled after remaining still for so long. Azula cursed aloud in the quiet darkness and stomped one boot to get feeling back into the limb. Her tears had finally dried and after the pain crept in a sullen stillness. Her chi ran headlong into a brick wall and halted. Usually it was a whirling force, matching her strength. But now it dripped sullenly, muted and deflated.
The moon was high overhead and the rustling of the waves as they crashed on the shore filled Azula's ears. She should just stay out here, stay away from the stupid house she insisted on buying. The omega would be there…..Ty Lee….
As she neared the house, Azula saw it was dark, save one lantern in a back room. The bedroom. Where she certainly wasn't going there. But she did want to find shelter, and she HAD purchased the damn place, after all. Azula grunted, scrubbing her damp cheek with one wrist. She bypassed the front door and made for a side door. It was unlocked and opened into the kitchen. Azula closed the door and locked it, looking around. The connecting dining room was dark and so was the sitting room and entryway. If Ty Lee was where the light was, it was further back. There was no furniture yet, so Azula merely sank to the floor, long legs stretched out as she leaned against the wall. She was hidden on this side of the kitchen counter from the rest of the main sitting room and all the better.
Azula didn't want to see Ty Lee right now. She didn't know if she did again. The bleakness of the evening pressed in on Azula's mind and weighed down her heart.
As she struggled to fall asleep, her father cackled in her ear.
"WEAK. Weakling. Firebending prodigy, but you fall to pieces at a bit of news? PATHETIC. No wonder the omega could fool you."
Azula shuddered, cold seeping into her limbs. She crossed her arms, trying to flare her chi to warm her body. But her chi flickered only briefly. Her firebending took a back seat as well. She set her chin to her sternum, closing her eyes.
"Shut up," she whispered to no one in particular. Her father chuckled in her ear.
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Ty Lee woke suddenly, needing to pee. Her mouth was dry and strands from her ruined braid were in her mouth. She licked her lips, rushing to the washroom. The lantern had long since dimmed out and the sun was rising. Azula, was she okay? Ty Lee took only a moment to relieve herself, take a sip of water, and rushed down the entry way. She looked around the dimly lit sitting and dining room, the light from the rising sun filling the rooms.
No Azula anywhere. Where was she? Before Ty Lee could wonder or start to cry again, there was a rap at the front door. Ty Lee padded closer, refastening the clasps to her wrinkled tunic. She opened to find a middle-aged woman smiling and bowing.
"Mistress Lo and Li bought my services for you. I am Kumiko," the woman beamed. Ty Lee tried to process that. Servants now? Azula really had thought of everything. More guilt slammed through her, making her throat tight. Ty Lee croaked a greeting and let her in.
"I don't know where the princess is…." Ty Lee was ashamed to admit when Kumiko asked, but when the servant poked into the kitchen, she got her answer. Azula was sprawled, asleep, and she started much to Ty Lee's dismay. There were dark circles under Azula's eyes and it looked like she'd been crying. Azula's startled look at her told Ty Lee she looked much the same.
Azula chose the bad moment waking up to surrender to her alpha aggression. She sprang to her full height, messy topknot askew. "Who are you and what are you doing in here?!"
Ty Lee winced but Kumiko took it in stride with a smile.
"I am your servant, Kumiko. Mistress Lo and Li sent me here to begin your days meals. What would you like for breakfast, princess?"
Azula crossed her arms as the shorter woman made her way into the kitchen, setting her basket of foodstuffs down. She glowered.
"Whatever," she hissed. Kumiko nodded absently.
"A meal of whatever. Coming right up."
Ty Lee fluttered in the sitting room. Azula flicked tired golden eyes toward her.
"Azula…." Ty Lee murmured. Azula stalked toward the side door again. She really needed to pee, so she headed to the bushes on the side of the house to unlace. As she took care of relieving herself, Azula stared at the sand beside the house. She sighed and laced back up. She sat on the edge of the sand's edge, and took off her boots. It really was getting warm out.
Azula fingered her loose bangs, then unbound her top knot, her dark hair falling about her shoulders. She pocketed her topknot ornament and bound her loose hair back with a simple tie. It was all she wanted to manage, but she didn't want to look too unkempt.
'What's the point?' Azula's mind muttered. Azula silently agreed. When Kumiko came out with a tray of rice, miso soup and eggs for her breakfast, Azula took a small bite, staring at the ocean. The rasping voice of the waves tried to bring her mind to stillness, but she was already at a crossroads of stillness. She grimaced, setting her chopsticks down, washing the bite down with tea.
"The weak sustain themselves with foolish thoughts and words. WEAK!" her father hissed. Azula scowled and mumbled under her breath.
The hot sun beat down overhead and Azula lowered her firebending to keep herself from sweating it out. She had no idea what to do and her mind still couldn't wrap around the truth she'd been gifted with. Gifted? More like cursed with.
Azula sighed and pushed the tray back. The sight of food did nothing to entice her, and nothing would today. She hugged her knees to her chest, watching the water.
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"Are you certain you won't have your breakfast, my lady?" Kumiko asked. She was on her hands and knees, scrubbing the main sitting room hardwood floors. Ty Lee picked at the rice with her chopsticks. She brought a bite to her mouth to please the old woman, but swallowing was hard. It was like swallowing a mouthful of sawdust. Food had no flavor today, not while things were so uncertain. Uncertain? It wasn't like they'd just had a spat. More like a severing of their short-lived relationship….. Ty Lee gasped to herself and put her chopsticks down. She pressed her brow against her hand.
"I'm eating it; thank you, Kumiko," Ty Lee said. She hoped it was enough to placate the new woman. Kumiko watched her with an unreadable expression but continued scrubbing the floor.
"Why isn't the princess joining you?" she wondered. Ty Lee's vision dimmed, and her mood soured.
"She needs some alone time…" Well, it was as close to the truth as she could get. Kumiko nodded.
"Young lovers often have fights that seem most serious, but can fizzle out if one apologizes. Go ahead and give it a try, Lady Ty Lee."
Ty Lee's mouth turned down in a sad frown. "I doubt it will be that simple…" Not after dropping the fucked-up bombshell she had let go into Azula's lap. Kumiko sighed.
"You'd be surprised."
Ty Lee slowly moved to the backdoor to watch Azula on the beach. The scene was picturesque to join her, but Azula's sudden movements kept her inside. Azula flung her foot in a whirling flying kick, blue fire streaming from her boot; her foot landed against the side of one of the palm trees. The fire and her strike cracked the trunk in half, and the tree fell with a muted thump! Into the sand. Ty Lee cringed. No, best to leave Azula with her thoughts. Even if they weren't friendly.
Ty Lee turned back to the kitchen with a strangled gasp. She heard Kumiko pad closer to peer out the side door and take in the princess's apparent tantrum across the sand. She tutted her.
"Firebenders always have some aggression. Try to relax your thoughts, my lady." Kumiko was unperturbed. Ty Lee laid her head on her arms on the counter. Lethargy weighed her limbs down and I was all she could do to keep her eyes open.
The gentleness she had seen from Azula, caring for HER for a change, after Ty Lee had done everything to make Azula in her blinded state comfortable. It was enough to know she had experienced it even if she would never experience such kindness from her again…..
'Dammit! I love her….' Ty Lee thought, forcing more tears from her eyes. She couldn't stop the new onslaught and she made a small whimpered choked sound in the house's sudden silence. Ty Lee heard the clack of a scrub brush being set on the hardwood floor and before she could lift her head, she felt a gnarled old hand petting her head, the servant's fingers gently untangling her loose brown hair.
"I don't know what's happened to the two of you, but your friends at Mistress Lo and Li's seem to think you're both in it for the long haul. The princess will come around. Just leave the rest of the house to old Kumiko, yes?"
Ty Lee nodded her head, sniffling. She was absurdly grateful for the gesture of kindness from a near stranger. Her own mother wouldn't have extended such a kind physical gesture. She would have told her to get up and dry her eyes. "Mmmkay."
"That's a good girl." Kumiko patted her head gently again and went back to the floor. Ty Lee lifted her head slowly.
There was nothing more she wanted to do but venture to the beach and try to talk to Azula. She'd give her a few more hours. She needed to vent most of her inner demons out first….
Ty Lee had a feeling she was still wrong somehow as she made herself wait.
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That night came slowly but surely and Azula's stomach grumbled. She'd gone a full day without eating something, and her body felt steadily unsure. Her gait was shaky, and she didn't feel her old strength. She could barely trudge back to the house, boots in hand.
Inside, Azula found two plates of a dinner left out, wrapped, for her and presumably, Ty Lee. Azula's brows pressed together. She hadn't eaten yet either? What was she thinking?
Azula made herself move to the back of the house, following the faint light of a lantern hidden away in the back bedroom. Pushing in, she found her omega undressing mechanically. Ty Lee gasped and flung her bed robe around herself. Her wide brown eyes took Azula's somewhat angry golden eyes.
"You need to eat," she snarled. Ty Lee swallowed. Azula still looked pissed and she wondered if things would come to blows. Ty Lee could protect herself, but she didn't want to fight her.
"I just don't feel like it," Ty Lee admitted. "I'm more worried about you."
Azula's heart clenched but she made herself hiss in response. The old anger surged through her being. She had LIED to her! Lied and given their child away! "What about? Worried what I think about you giving your daughter away? I had no idea it was mine, so I still can't think anything about it. You lied SO WELL, Ty Lee."
Tears filled Ty Lee's eyes, making Azula's heart clench in sympathy. "I'm so sorry….I should have told you back then."
"You should have!" Azula agreed. But on some crazy level, she wondered of the truth of Ty Lee's decisions. She HADN'T been ready to claim her, or a child. She had driven them away…it was her, wasn't it? Just like Mother had once said…. Azula snarled and clenched her elbows in her hands. She turned and whirled back to the bedroom door.
"W-where are you going, Azula?" Ty Lee asked almost timidly. Azula paused at the doorway, ponytail swinging.
"Away." She muttered. She stalked out to the kitchen again, the rest of the house dark. The new servant had left a bottle of sake on the counter; Azula took the whole bottle and opened it. The liquid was luke-warm but she took a hearty swig, then another and another. The alcohol crashed down to her empty belly and Azula coughed. She sputtered and took two more long swigs. Half the bottle was gone by this point and she only had a little bit of a headache coming on.
Azula scowled and stalked across the hardwood floors. She almost made for the back bedroom, faltered, and about-faced for the side door. She took the bottle out on the cold sand and listened to the dark waves crashing she couldn't see in the dead of night.
Funny, she couldn't see the waves in the pitch blackness of night out here. It was like those days of pitch black in her vision. With the peaceful waves crashing in soft crescendos, Azula tipped her head back. The stars were brilliant, and she blinked tears away. The stars on her past travels had been as brilliant overhead but she'd been in far better company watching them. Ty Lee and Mai always joined her evening rituals before bed and they all shared stories, jokes and their company.
Now, Ty Lee was crying inside this house, and Mai was the Fire Lady and enjoying Ty Lee's daughter. HER daughter. Azula wondered wildly if Princess Izumi's looks could be traced to her, or if the similarities of siblings wouldn't make people second-guess too much. She and Zuzu did have the same eye and hair color. Probably not enough to guess her parentage.
Azula sputtered to herself. Since she had never assumed herself linked to the princess, she still had no feelings toward the child. So far, she was still an abstract thing, a name linked to her hated brother who had taken her omega away.
'Are you so certain she's your omega? You didn't do much to control her,' Ozai spoke plainly, and loudly, in the quiet night. Azula scowled and took another hard swig of sake.
"Yeah, and with that attitude, no wonder Mother so readily left," Azula mumbled to the night sky. Her father was silent then he seethed into her very mind.
"SHE DID NOT LEAVE, I BANISHED HER. Do you need to learn your place, Azula?"
Azula shuddered at "learn your place." She had learned her place all too well. Hours of firebending practice, schooling, warfare training and palace etiquette had shaped her to be the heir apparent, but in all the advantages given to her, her own identity had been excluded. Azula was lucky Ozai had allowed his groveling noble's daughters to continue visiting. Mai, Ty Lee….
"Dammit!" Azula spilled the sake bottle, spilling abit into the sand. She cursed, picked up the bottle and sloshed it to hear how much liquid was saved. Not much from the sounds of it. She wiped the sand from the mouth of the bottle with her sleeve and took a cautious sip.
Love was for fools. But why was she acting like all those fools? Ty Lee had ruined any soft feelings she'd started to have. Azula didn't know how she was going to survive the next week or the rest of her weeks and months when Ty Lee decided to leave, but she'd have to get to it when she got to it.
She had to, right? Azula shivered and sparked her firebending to warm her chi. It sputtered and went out after a ten second blaze. Azula, definitely not feeling like herself, hugged her elbows and leaned back against the bark of a palm tree.
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"I just have a bad feeling. We should check up on Ty Lee and the princess," Ying said. Tsung lolled on one of the beds in Lo and Li's guest room. She fingered the pink bedspread.
"You didn't want to lay with me because you're worried, and you're fretting still? Come on, let's head on over and allay these fears. But I swear, we're more than likely going to walk in on them rutting again."
"We're lucky Princess Azula sees us as comrades. Sort of," Ying said, adjusting her warrior's robe. "Since we're close to Ty Lee, and she adores her, she sees us as an extension."
"Let's go," Tsung said. There was only so much she could take staying at the elderly advisor's home. They were just lucky Zirin camped out in the living room or the veranda, leaving them in relative privacy.
At Azula and Ty Lee's new home, Tsung was surprised to see Azula already on the beach. But instead of light beach wear, she was in her tunic and trousers. Her boots had been taken off, but her outfit was still heavily fastened, only slightly wrinkled. What did that mean? Knocking brought them face to face with Kumiko who they had briefly met when she was hired by the old twins. She ushered the Kyoshi Warriors in who were disturbed to find Ty Lee on a new sofa in the living area, limp and dejected. Her clothing was wrinkled, and her braid was ruined, indicating she hadn't changed or combed her hair in at least a day or more.
"Are you okay, Ty?" Tsung asked with concern. Ying knelt down and squeezed her friend's hand. Ty Lee took them in tiredly.
"Not so much. We had a bit of a fight," Ty Lee said lightly, but her eyes spoke of a sullen exchange. Ying squeezed her hand tightly.
"Whatever it is, I'm sure…" she began when Ty Lee flicked her tired eyes to her. And in that understanding gaze, Ying knew what Ty Lee had talked with Azula about that would have caused such a defeat. She gasped inwardly. Ty Lee gave a subtle nod for her sake. Tsung didn't know about Izumi. She didn't know what silent words had been exchanged with a subtle look.
"Would you girls like any tea?" Kumiko asked. Ying shook her head.
"No thank you, ma'am!" She sat on the sofa and pulled Ty Lee's head into her lap. Tsung took the moment to follow her lover's example and sat on the floor. She rubbed Ty Lee's back as Ying stroked her head gently. Ty Lee couldn't let herself relax completely, though.
"I have to get to Azula again. I have to…. "she whimpered. Ying nodded, eyes serious.
"How long has it been?"
"Over a day…"
Tsung nodded. "Then it should be a good time to talk to her. Get her to calm down…."
Tears spilled from Ty Lee's eyes. "I don't think anything will be good between us ever again…."
Tsung guffawed. "Come on, Ty, just a fight. You can both get past it!"
But Ying knew her friend's reason for her inner struggle. She hugged her gently. "It'll get better, Ty. It has to."
Ty Lee cried for long moments in her friend's lap, feeling her gloved hand press across her hair. She closed her eyes, spent.
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It was coming on close to another night and Azula still hadn't come inside. Ty Lee took the chance to go out the side door and to the sand's edge. Kumiko had already left for the night, leaving dinner on the counter for them. She had said, not too subtly, that she didn't approve of this self-inflicted diet the two women seemed to be on in their grief. Ty Lee watched her lover sadly.
Azula wasn't pacing or bending. She was merely sitting, still for once. Ty Lee swallowed her fear and stepped onto the gravel walkway leading to the beach. The faintest of breezes stirred her bangs. She had unfastened her sloppy braid, tying her hair back with a simple tie. It was all she could manage. Ty Lee brushed her hands over her wrinkled tunic, wishing she had changed. Azula looked up, hearing the crunch-crunch of her feet in the sand. Her eyes had a truly haunted look, dark circles lining them. Ty Lee knew she had fared no better. Every time she had managed to fall asleep, the sudden noise of anything in a new house or her own fears jolted her awake.
She hadn't gotten any rest either. Ty Lee cleared her throat. Before she could attempt to speak, apologize, or do anything, the alpha was on her feet. She stalked toward the water, bare feet sinking into the sand. Ty Lee stared and followed at a safe distance.
"Azula?" she called, apprehension in her voice. Azula clasped her palms to her ears as if to shut her out, hurting her further, and whirled around. Steam rose as her bare feet struck the edges of the cascading waves. Azula retracted her firebending, putting the steam out. Ty Lee swallowed. "Can you come inside? Please? It's cold at night out here…"
Azula laughed, a haunting refrain that troubled Ty Lee. "No colder than it is in there!" she taunted. Her face twisted in a grimace as if hearing something truly unpleasant, but Ty Lee hadn't responded. The omega gulped.
'An unfaithful omega reaps a cold union. She's proven to not want you. Just leave,' Ozai taunted. Azula snarled and blasted a fireball into the water. The ocean's waves lapped up the small stream easily. Steam rose behind the troubled alpha.
"Stop it! "she hissed. Ty Lee gulped.
"Please, Azula. Come inside. You-you can have the bed. I'll sleep in the living room," she promised. Azula stared at her, crawling indecision in her gaze.
"Give me a moment," she murmured. Ty Lee nodded and forced herself to back off. She made herself walk, and rather slowly, back to the kitchen door. In the door frame, she waited, watching the silhouetted figure on the beach. Finally, the figure began to move, and the silhouette bobbed closer. Ty Lee almost jumped out of her skin when the silhouette darkened the door frame and Azula was stepping inside.
Azula, for her part, almost jumped herself. That she would scent Ty Lee was no wonder; she had been all over the house after all. But she wasn't expecting her to be in the doorway. Both women jumped, bodies stopping centimeters apart. The promise of warmth and reconciliation vanished in an instant. Ty Lee stumbled back, muttering an apology, and Azula made herself push past. She followed the faint lantern light that was only in the back bedroom and peered inside.
The large bed hadn't been made, and the sheets were slightly rumpled. Azula inhaled on instinct. Ty Lee had lain in those sheets and her heart thudded hard. Azula almost made to stalk back out to the living area, but she heard the omega setting up a bed on the new sofa. She closed the door and regarded the sparsely furnished bedchamber. It had high ceilings and a large window looking out the back of the house toward the ocean. The play of ocean water against the glass would make for excellent images after lolling in bed and Azula ran a hand through her bangs.
She had been far too sentimental with picking this house and her omega was lost to her…. Tears filled Azula's eyes as she stripped down to her small clothes and slipped beneath the rumpled sheets. Ty Lee's scent was everywhere, and she buried her face in a pillow. She'd have to wash all of this when she finally left…. she WAS going to leave, right? Then why was she staying the night?
Azula's mind tumbled over in uncomfortable circles. Ty Lee had dropped a horrible secret but had stayed at the house? What was wrong with her? She may not want to be with her brother anymore, but they had a child, so to speak. Even if Azula's time during that heat was only worth a few pumps of seed in Ty Lee's pussy. She had been the one to father the princess, not her brother.
Azula blew out the lantern and lay listening to the ocean waves cascading outside, and Ty Lee's shallow breathing from the living area. She covered her head with the sheets, shuddering.
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Two days now.
Ty Lee woke with a jerk as Kumiko let herself in (had Lo and Li provided a key? How thoughtful, Ty Lee thought disdainfully) and began making breakfast. Azula hadn't stirred from the bedchamber and Ty Lee was getting worried. Kumiko finished setting up two servings on a tray and called her lady over. Ty Lee took the tray and steeled her resolve.
She would bring this to Azula and force her to eat if she had to. Bad enough if chi-blocking would have to be done, but Azula was going to eat something solid today. And then maybe she could….
Knocking at the bedchamber door responded in no answer. Ty Lee rapped harder, calling Azula's name, and in a panic, forced the door. She stumbled in, juggling the tray and was relieved to see Azula awake, wearing an unfastened tunic and her smallclothes. She was staring at a blank wall of the bedroom unblinking. She looked positively terrible and Ty Lee's heart shredded yet again.
She set the tray down on the bed and moved closer to the princess. Finally, gathering her courage, Ty Lee touched Azula's hand. The princess jumped, even as Ozai yelled in her ear to let go of the weakling's hand. She turned, vacant golden eyes staring past Ty Lee.
Ty Lee's mouth dried, but she slowly took Azula's other hand. She squeezed gently, surging her chi in assuring waves toward the alpha.
"Azula?" she croaked. Azula blinked and seemed to focus on her. She seemed bent, cowering beneath Ty Lee's gaze.
"Why are you still here? I thought you'd be long gone," Azula mumbled. Ozai laughed hysterically and commended the words. Azula felt terrible at the hurt expression on Ty Lee's face, though.
"You didn't sleep, did you? I can't sleep either," Ty Lee confessed. She heard both of their stomachs rumble and Ty Lee swallowed. "Azula, please, let's just eat. Together, and maybe we can stomach it. Please?"
Azula cried a bitter laugh. Her hands went limp in Ty Lee's. "I can't eat. Not after what you did. You lied to me all this time…."
Ty Lee's tears flowed freely now. She clasped Azula's hands harder. "I did….and no one was deserving of it, least of all you. Azula…." Ty Lee's voice hardened, and her chi surged forward to lap at the edges of Azula's deflated energy. "I love you. I love you, Azula. So much. I always have, even when we were little."
Azula's foggy hearing let the words in slowly and she swallowed, again and again. She felt so funny and so light all at once, what was this….
Ozai roared in her ear, making her wince. Ty Lee's face fell at the expression.
'No! NO! Don't fall for cheap words! My heir must be strong and above all else, unapproachable!"
Azula remembered the sad looks Mother got when she was young. At the time she hadn't cared, and she didn't know if she did now. But Mother had indeed tried to get her help lately. Same as the crying omega in front of her. The one who had shared her last heat and bed with her at Mountainside Manor, after her vision had come back….
As if pulled taut, the knot in her stomach tightened until it released and Azula saw with absolute clarity, Ty Lee's fears and her love and her commitment. She had wanted to get her help, she had taken her out a barbaric dungeon despite her so-called treason, she had taken care of their daughter and had made sure she was safe.
Azula saw in her mind's eye an alternate response if Ty Lee hadn't forced her away and run into her brother's arms. She would have claimed her, true. Ty Lee would have come along with her ambitions because she loved her, loved her! She had said so. She would have run with her, round with their child, and Azula's plots could have gotten her and Izumi killed.
She had nearly killed Ty Lee in a fit of rage before the coup. Buried in ice and snow and nearly freezing…. Azula cowered inwardly even as her teary golden eyes focused on Ty Lee's brown orbs. Slowly, life returned to her fingers and she squeezed Ty lee's fingers back.
'YOU ARE UNFIT! UNFIT TO BE MY HEIR, UNFIT TO BE FIRE LORD!" Ozai screeched in her mid. Azula blinked, and the words dissipated like so much fine smoke. For once, Ozai's words didn't trouble her.
Because they were true. She WAS unfit. She had almost killed her omega, and if Ty Lee hadn't had the strength to leave with her child, she would have endangered her daughter as well. Azula saw clearly the destruction her actions would have wrought.
And unfit to be Fire Lord? Azula didn't even want it anymore. The crying omega in front of her, that was what Azula wanted. She clutched the back of Ty Lee's neck and as the omega started in surprise, trying to struggle out of her grip, Azula brought her forward. Their brows pressed together, and ugly tears now seethed out of Azula's eyes.
"DON'T. GO." Azula whispered hoarsely. Her tears and those words told Ty Lee everything. Even if Azula rarely apologized, and never said she loved anything, an apology and love were in her broken golden eyes. Azula knew she had to be strong; alpha up so to speak, and reclaim Ty Lee if she wanted her to stay. Show her she was sorry, show her to stay…. If she did, she could beat her father and her inner demons and ultimately win her peace.
Only with Ty Lee would such peace come. Azula was certain of it. Already, fatigue was lifting form her mind as Ty Lee embraced her back. Their bodies pressed together, and they were crying. Slowly, fearfully, Ty Lee stood on tiptoes to brush her lips to hers. Azula drank of her lips as sweetly; honeyed nectar, even with the salt of her tears.
"I'm staying, Azula. I promise!" Ty Lee whispered. Azula held her face in her hands and kissed her deeply. Her father went silent and all was still except for their breathing.
End for now
End notes: WHEW! Here we are near the home stretch. What do you think? Like it, smash that button, do that review thing. If the next posting is over a week in between posts, know I'm working on it to be good. Stay strong, my lovelies! Happy early Christmas to all of you.
Most sincerely,
Pen 12/21/2017