Ty Lee had begun to pick up the pieces. With a smile and clever makeup, she was everyone's favorite warrior again. Donned in green she somersaulted into a handstand, showing the strength packed into her small frame as she moved down and back up without breaking a sweat or a tremble in her toned arms.
"Look! I can walk on my hands!" She heard herself saying to the one person in the palace who paid her any real attention anymore.
Azula's little sister clapped her hands wildly in pure admiration that was not shown from a hard shove or vicious, jealous commentary. Azula's little…wait…Ty Lee reminded herself that she could not keep referring to the child or any of Azula's family members…
Quit it! The Kyoshi Warrior scolded herself, allowing Azula's little…Kiyi to climb atop her bent knees as she paraded her around the throne room to her delightful heart.
"You seem happier nowadays, Ty Lee," commented Azula's mother with a soft, pained smile. It was just the three of them in the throne room, awaiting Azula's brother and uncle to return from training. Suki had insisted that she would be ok alone to guard them while Ty Lee kept watch over Azula's other family members in case the woman decided to make any other unexpected visits.
Azula. Azula's family that always treated Ty Lee as family though they had no idea of the nature of their friendship. How close they once were. Just like the princess, they found it difficult to see past the smiles and desperate stunts for attention from the…circus freak comfortable in her new matched set.
Plastering one of her signature smiles, she answered Azula's mother sweetly, "Of course, Lady Ursa".
The woman nodded, calmly. "That's good to hear, Sweetheart, I am also. Especially with my little girl back safe and sound," she said, picking up the little girl from the woman's legs.
The comment made the familiar knots in Ty Lee's stomach twist. Walking upright, she excused herself to the palace balcony to look over the capital towards the distant ocean side and the Gates of Azulon. She often waited here in her childhood for Azula to join her on their playdates, always absent of their mothers.
"Why did you have to come back?" She asked aloud and bitter to no one. "You just had to come back into my life like always, didn't you? And leave with your new friends…you could have at least said goodbye".
#
Azula tossed her mask over the side of the ship lazily as it careened through the Gates of Azulon. Her sisters enjoyed ale and cigars in the dining quarters in late celebration of their grand escape from the mental institution.
"Come on, Azula! These are happy times!" Called Zirin from the railing of the upstairs deck where the party was carrying on.
Azula waved her away as she watched Caldera fade in the distance. Strangely, she found nothing worth celebrating. Something was missing, someone was missing.
"I could have said goodbye," she whispered to no one.