Hi, remember me? I certainly remember you. Yeah you, sitting there looking at this screen and reading these words. I didn't forget you. AND, because I didn't forget all you lovely people, I have and update for you guys. I think this story is fuelled by my misery and sadness. Why you asks? Because I only seem able to update when I'm depressed. Now isn't that sad. Whatever. UPDATE IS HERE!
I'm a Lover not a Hater: I'm pure evil aren't I, leaving you guys with a cliff hanger like that yeah? Don't worry I still love you guys, I just love being evil more. So have an update.
Aemeth: Thanks, and you better believe its cliché, the clichés work the best at times, or at least I think so.
IntelligentPrincess: I'm completely and utterly soulless and I enjoy your pain that's why MWAHAHAHA! JK but now you no longer have to die cause update! YAY!
Lemon-rind: Indeed, no drabness in this chapter. However if other chapters where drab why didn't you tell me? I would have tried to make things more interesting if they were to drab! Ah regardless, I hope you enjoy.
Guest: CLIFHANGERRRRRR indeed.No cliffhanger now though, or at least much less of a cliffhanger than last time, trololol.
Dbananad: WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SO NICE TO ME?! That's up there with some of the nicest things people have said to me in the comment section, thank you, a lot. Its these kind of comments that keep me inspired to write, cause people actually do enjoy what I dream up, which in and of itself is shocking. Either way, enjoy.
Disclaimer, I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, shocker right?
Update Message: You guys can thank Dbananad for their review on this chapter. They pointed out that Iroh not doing kinda just letting Azula strangle Ty Lee was a bit on the ludicrous side. As such I fixed that. All though it was really funny to think of Iroh poking his head up from behind a table, watching in fright as Azula attempted to murder somebody. LOLs but yeah on with the show.
"W-what?"
Azula's eyes widened with rage that she herself didn't even understand. She could hear someone screaming in her head, felt a pressure on her skull like it might burst at any moment. To make matters worse the scared look in Ty Lee's grey eyes only served to fuel the anger growing inside her as more tears spilt forth. Why did it hurt so much to see her like this, fear filling her eyes and face pale.
"Why did you leave me?!" The words left her mouth as a shout she had not intended. She could see Ty Lee flinch slightly but any guilt at the action was overridden by her anger. Anger which she still could not understand, and it made her ever the more furious at the fact she didn't understand it all. Logic was being overwritten by memories and emotions, and reason had taken flight in the face of her multitude of emotions.
"Why did I leave?" Ty Lee asked in a frightened whisper.
"YES!" Azula screeched.
"Well, you clearly don't need me. I think I'll just see myself out now." Iroh muttered as he warily backed out of the room. They heard the tinkle of door chime as he walked out the tea shop, but that didn't matter.
Nothing mattered right now, nothing but understanding, after all this time, why the one person she had given her heart too had ripped it apart and left her with nothing. Tears continued to stream from her eyes, clouding her vision, but it mattered little. All that mattered where the answers. Ty Lee looked away from Azula even as the princess pulled her face closer to her own, desperate for understanding.
"Why?" Azula asked again, though with a little less restraint on the desperation creeping into her voice. "Tell me!"
With that Azula's grip on Ty Lee's shirt shifted as she lifted the girl off the floor while still trapping her against the wall. Her arms screamed in protest at having to lift something as large as another person, but Azula's mind and body where in two different places. Her hands had wrapped around the pale skin of the pink clad woman's neck and she had begun to squeeze. Ty Lee was forced to try and use the wall to support herself else she begin to suffocate while trying unsuccessfully remove Azula's fingers from around her neck.
"Zula," Ty Lee managed to choke out "I can't… breath!" Azula's eyes widened slightly as she realized her hands had begun traveling upward towards the acrobat's throat and she suddenly realized she was in fact in the process of choking the grey eyed woman.
One part of her screamed to let her go, that she was stopping air from getting to Ty Lee's lungs, that she was killing her. Another, more vicious side screamed to never let go, not until she felt the satisfying snap of a neck breaking or the final desperate flails of a final breath. The screaming had become louder, a deafening roar in her head that blocked out all rational thought. A crazed smile had worked its way onto her face even as she sobbed harder.
She just wanted all the pain to go away, just wanted it all to end. The sadness, the loneliness, the ache in her heart every time she thought of those beautiful grey eyes; she just wanted it all to stop. Ty Lee had begun to feebly pull at her hands as the acrobats face began to turn a light blue in color. The former princess refused to budge as she kept her iron grip, cutting off all air to the girl below her. She would not stop, nothing could make her stop. The screaming in her head intensified as Ty Lee continued to weaken and sputter, Azula watching with a short of maddened fascination as the beautiful face below her twisted with pain and panic. Azula had started to laugh and sob at the same time, the sound coming out like a garbled cry.
Yet as Azula gazed into the slowly dimming eyes of the girl in front of her, something inside her snapped. She released her grip on Ty Lee's throat allowing the girl to take a rasping gasp of air as she collapsed. Falling backwards, Azula curled into a ball hugging her knees into her chest as she continued to laugh. The sound was insane even to her own ears, however the screaming in her head was gone, leaving only her own laughter.
She lay there, on the floor of the tea shop, as she listened to the sound of Ty lee's ragged breathing and coughing, her laughter died into painful sobs. The tears that had streamed from her eyes slowed to nothing as she lay there, leaving her with a feeling of emptiness.
"So… pathetically… weak…" Azula whispered to herself as she lay there staring ahead but not seeing.
Ty Lee massaged her throat painfully and drew in shuddering breaths, desperately trying to fill her lungs with as much air as possible. She looked at the trembling girl in front of her, so utterly broken on the inside. It tore Ty lee's heart to shreds at the mere thought that this might be her fault. Part of her was still frightened of Azula because of what had just transpired but as she heard the painful sobs of the former princess she felt her heart wrench painfully. She couldn't let this happen to her princess, not now, not ever.
"Azula?" she whispered as her throat protested at in pain at her attempts to speak. "Zula?" Her questioning voice was met only with sobs.
Gingerly getting to her feet, so as to avoid any sudden weakness and collapse, Ty Lee trained her eyes on Azula. The former princess' normally neat and beautiful hair was askew and her golden eyes, once so full of life, where puffy and read from her crying. However they also stared ahead, with a dead look in them. Slowly, so as not to startle the now motionless girl Ty Lee gently lowered herself down next to Azula, the only sound being the movement of fabric as her acrobatics dress rustled slightly. Gently, as if she were afraid that she might shatter into thousands of pieces, Ty Lee placed a hand on cheek and caressed it
"Why did this have to happen to you Azula?" She whispered to herself, "You were so strong and beautiful, full of life and intelligence. Did I do this to you, is this my fault?"
She felt the barest stir against her hand as she felt Azula shift ever so slightly. "Is it my fault Azula? I never meant for this to happen, I never meant to leave you." Ty Lee continued to whisper even as tears pooled in her eyes and began to fall into the tangled mess of silken black hair.
"Then why?"
Grey eyes widened slightly at the sound of a strained and tired voice, rising up from below her.
"Zula?"
"If you didn't mean to leave, why did you?" Azula asked in a whisper so quite that Ty Lee could barely hear it.
The tears that filled Ty Lee's eyes continued to fall as she choked out "Because you were killing yourself."
Azula stiffened slightly under Ty Lee's gentle touch. "You were starting to act more and more like your father every day. You were becoming someone I didn't recognize anymore. And no matter what I did, you didn't seem to change back." Ty Lee said quietly. "I had fallen in love with the slightly awkward and shy girl who on the outside was fierce and dangerous and beautiful, but who was even more beautiful on the inside. Because I knew you had emotions, I knew you had a heart. But you changed, you weren't the same anymore, and it scared me. I didn't know what to do. All I could do was watch as you slowly lost what made you the person I loved."
"What?" Azula asked softly, pain evident in her voice.
"I'm so sorry Azula, I didn't know how to save you. I didn't know what to do, so when I could, I ran. I ran so that I didn't have to see you become a monster. I ran so I didn't have to break your heart by no longer being able to say that I loved you. That day at the prison… I still have nightmares about it, about leaving you. I wish so many times that I had tried harder to keep you who you are. But I was a coward and I ran away from you, instead of trying to help you." Ty Lee let out a choked sob as her eyes continued to leak tears. "I'm so sorry, Azula. I'm so sorry Please don't hate me."
Azula's mind reeled at all the things that she had just been told. The day at boiling rock, she couldn't remember it clearly; all it was, was a blur of pain and sadness as the only person she had loved left her. Yet here was the same girl who had torn out her heart, who she had almost killed, and Ty Lee was now the one who was sobbing and apologizing. It made her heart ache.
"Don't cry." Azula said softly. "I hate it when you cry."
Ty Lee lifted her head up slightly to look at Azula but the former princess had instead raised herself off the floor and was hugging the acrobat to her closely. She could feel Ty Lee's warmth and smell her hair and knew that she was real.
"I don't hate you." Azula mumbled into the soft brown locks. "I can't hate you."
"I still love you"
Then Azula looked at Ty Lee's shocked face, at her beautiful pale skin, her grey eyes that had always enchanted her, and her luscious lips. Before Azula realized what she was doing, she leaned in and kissed her.
I'm so evil it tingles. I'm going to guess the general consensus now is "DRAK you insert curse of your choice here you leave off after that! GRRR UPDATE, BLARGH and what not." So yeah I leave you with that, if you thought it was good let me know. If you thought it was utter trash and I should rewrite it let me know. Anyways until next time, whenever that is…
Draconian Calocor, Peace out.