Of Fire

Chapter 3

Now that Detia could walk, it seemed that she never stopped. She would still sit and watch Ty Lee stretch sometimes; though most of the time, she tried to imitate her mother, with little success. Ty Lee was thrilled and started teaching her child the very basics of her art. More often than not, the training wore the baby out and she would sleep soundly for long periods of time. Usually, her training with her mommy began around noon, after Ty Lee got up, ate, and sat around playing little games with Detia. So on a day, maybe three weeks after Detia started walking, when Ty Lee simply couldn't go back to sleep, she went to her daughter's room, with the purpose of watching the baby sleep, and found it empty.

Panic filled the acrobat and she ran to where Azula would be, in the garden exercising her fire bending katas. As Ty Lee approached her wife, she noticed a whiff of white hair hiding behind a pillar and stopped in her tracks. When she neared what was surely her daughter, she noticed that Azula hadn't stopped her exercise and that Detia was watching her. The little girl looked up at her mommy when Ty Lee was right behind her. Ty Lee placed her hand on Detia's small shoulder and motioned for her to follow. Slowly, as if she was unsure of herself and what her mommy had planned, she stood and took the woman's hand.

Ty Lee pulled the girl with her as she approached her lover. "Azula," the acrobat said, getting the Princess' attention.

"Ty Lee," Azula replied, somewhat surprised to see her wife up so early. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine," Ty Lee answered as Azula walked over to her, only wearing a light silk shirt, breast bindings, and her pants – all of which were soaked with sweat.

Azula kissed the shorter woman and smiled softly. "What are you doing up?"

She shrugged in response. "Couldn't get back to sleep. Do you want to join us for breakfast?"

Azula's thin lips turned into a frown at the word 'us' and instinctively looked down at the monster hiding behind Ty Lee's legs. "No," she answered as her eyes met Ty Lee's, "I can't. I have a meeting early this morning." Her lover pouted cutely and she kissed her lightly. "Maybe next time."

"Alright," Ty Lee easily conceded, not wanting to start yet another fight, and watched as Azula went inside to get cleaned up, waving slightly as she did.

Once her lover was out of sight, Ty Lee sighed sadly, looking down at her daughter. Golden eyes stared up at her. 'How am I supposed to get Azula to warm up to our daughter if she won't even spend any time with her?' Ty Lee thought and felt small digits squeeze her hand. "Right then, let's go get something to eat. What do you say?" The little girl nodded.

~x~

Months passed and Azula did not warm up to her assumed child. And what's worse, Detia had started disappearing for long hours, and when she reappeared she'd have burn marks on her arms, legs, and hands. Ty Lee constantly asked where they came from, but the baby would only shake her head and not answer. Ty Lee had thought the worst at first, that Azula had done this, that her wife had hit their child. But her fears were somewhat relieved when Azula had a meeting that lasted all day, and at the end of the day, when Detia reappeared the child had new burns on her. However, that meant that someone else was hurting her child, or Detia was doing it to herself. The burns themselves weren't bad and tended to heal in half a day, but that didn't make Ty Lee feel any better.

Ty Lee often informed Azula – who didn't really care – about the new burns 'their' child was sporting. Azula would calm Ty Lee down, hold and whisper sweet words of reassurances to her, but did not approach the subject with the child. The child wasn't hers, after all, so there was no reason she should care. It had been about noon, and Azula was walking out of a meeting, talking to her brother and Mai when she saw a head of short white hair rush around the corner. Her curiosity getting the better of her, Azula excused herself and stealthily followed the child down a maze of halls and doors. Finally, the little monster looked around her as she came to a solid wall. She pushed and the walls parted soundlessly, revealing a hidden passageway. Before they could close behind the monster, Azula slipped in. The doors lead to a small garden, completely forgotten by time, overgrown at the long years of being unattended. A large clearing followed the doors, covered in scorched grass and surrounded by tall dense trees and bushes.

The princess watched as Detia unfolded the small bundle she had carried under her arm that contained a book, a pair of pants, and a shirt. Without a second's thought, Detia pulled the red dress over her head, dropping it on the ground, and pulled on the pants and shirt she had brought, only struggling a little with the pants – nearly falling over in her first attempt. Azula noticed that the little monster was thinner than most 10-month-olds. She attributed the lack of weight to Detia's excessive amounts of running around. Her thin arms and legs still held a slight amount of baby fat, but muscles were visibly there. If it wasn't for her height, Detia could easily pull off being three. The monster put on the shirt then tied her neck-length white hair into a small haphazard ponytail, many loose white strands falling into her face. Azula noticed for the first time that, in the right light, pale yellow highlights streaked like lightning through the girl's hair.

Detia flipped the book open, catching Azula's attention. She stopped at about the third page and studied it for a second before taking a beginner fire bending kata. Only looking at the page once, the 10-month-old monster performed a perfect fire punch, sending small white-blue flames into the air. Azula almost gasped but caught herself and smirked. At least now she knew how Detia got her burns, and maybe, the knowledge would calm her wife down a bit. She slipped out of the room, ignoring the fact that the little monster's fire was a very similar color to her own.

The princess kept the knowledge to herself until later that night when Ty Lee was wearing a hole in the carpet, worrying herself about the new burns Detia had on her arms. Azula was in bed, lying on the covers watching the way her wife's slimmed body moved gracefully back and forth over the carpet. The toned muscles of her back, that never seemed to go slack, tensing as she clenched her hands into a fist. Azula indulged in the image of those muscles arching beneath her, hot and slick. "I wish I knew how she keeps getting these burns," Ty Lee said.

"She's fire bending," Azula answered automatically, with a seductive smirk as she continued to eye her wife's thin, fit body. "Well, trying."

"Fire bending?" Ty Lee repeated as she whipped her head to face her mate. "But she's not even a year old."

Azula shrugged. "I followed her and saw her practicing."

The acrobat, noticing her wife's look, smiled and crawled up on the bed towards her. "Did you?"

"I was curious." Azula remarked, her mouth now mere inches from Ty Lee's as the acrobat moved towards her.

"I see." Ty Lee's breath mingled with Azula's. "She needs to be trained." Azula only nodded, pressing her lips to her wife's and drawing the other woman to her. "You should train her," the words slipped out of Ty Lee's mouth as Azula ran her hands over the other woman's ribs.

The action stopped immediately, and Azula pulled away from Ty Lee, sitting up. "I will not train her."

Ty Lee set up. "Azula she's your daughter."

Azula's golden eyes flared as a snarl curved her lips. "That monster is not my daughter!"

The acrobat stood from the bed, a scowl on her pretty face, and Azula did the same – the only thing separating them was the bed. "Why do you say that! Everyone else believes she's yours. Everyone! If you'd just…"

"Enough!" Azula yelled, sending the flames in the candles skyward. "I will not train her, and that's final."

"No it isn't!" Ty Lee yelled back as she rounded the bed to face her wife. "Why are you so hung up on this? Why won't you just admit it?"

"How, Ty Lee? How is it possible?" Azula countered.

Ty Lee frowned. "Do you think so little of me that I wouldn't even know if someone took advantage of me? I'm not as smart as you, but I would know if something like that happened, and it didn't. You're the only person I have ever been with! Detia is your daughter!"

"It doesn't even look like me," Azula countered.

"How would you know! You never spend any time with her! You don't even look at her," the acrobat's voice rising in uncharacteristic anger. "And she looks exactly like you, the only difference being her hair!" Ty Lee exhaled lightly, knowing anger would not solve this problem but unable to keep the bit from her tone. "I know what you think about her being mute, that no child of yours would ever have such a defect. But you're wrong! We both know that her 'disability' is no disability. Stop being so stubborn and just accept her!"

Azula's hand clenched into a tight fist, her teeth grinding together almost painfully as her sharp nails dug into her palm. "You can't change the way I feel, Ty Lee!"

Ty Lee sighed, defeated, and lowered her head, biting her lip to stop from crying. She was tired of fighting this losing battle. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Azula lifted a black eyebrow, but before she could say anything, Ty Lee turned and ran out of the room. "Ty Lee!" she called after the woman, but Ty Lee didn't stop. "Fine!" she slammed her door closed and threw herself on her bed. "Stupid woman."

~x~

Ty Lee ran down the corridor to Detia's room, passing Mai and Zuko, but she didn't see them as she rubbed the tears from her eyes. The royal couple looked at each other before following their friend. "Ty," Mai replied as she opened the door to Detia's room and saw her friend putting random things in a bag. Detia was standing in her crib, watching her mother run around the room, a worried expression on her young face. "Ty?" Mai ventured, placing a hand on Ty Lee's shoulder.

Ty Lee brushed the hand off, hurting Mai's feelings though it didn't show on her face. "I'm leaving," she said sternly through her tears and turned to see Mai. "Oh, uh…Mai…I thought you were…"

"Ty Lee, what happened?"

The brunette shook her head, throwing the small bag over her shoulder. "I don't want to talk about it. Come on, Detia."

"Where are you going?" Mai asked as her friend picked Detia up out of the crib.

Ty Lee shrugged, "Kyoshi I guess. I don't know."

"Would you like an escort?" Zuko offered.

The acrobat shook her head. "No. She'd notice that and I'm not strong enough to leave if she asked me not to." Detia looked up at her mother's tearful eyes and wiped them with her small hand, kissing the cheek that was closest to her. Ty Lee smiled. "You're such a good girl."

In an uncharacteristic show of emotion, Mai hugged her best friend, patting her niece on the head when she broke away. "Be safe, okay."

"If you need anything, you know how to reach us. And I mean anything," Zuko finished. Ty Lee nodded then hugged Zuko as well. When the hug broke, Zuko smiled at his baby niece and pinched her cheek. "You take care of your mommy." Detia slapped his hand away and glared at him, crossing her small arms over her chest, which caused him to chuckle softly. The Fire Lord looked up at his sister's wife, his smile fading. "I'll try to make her see," he promised.

"Thank you," she said lightly, "but I won't hold my breath." He nodded. Ty Lee shifted the extra weight and forced a smile. "I'll see you around."

~x~

Ty Lee walked down the roads that crisscrossed in the Fire Nations upper class. Detia, who had never been outside of the palace, insisted on walking by herself, holding her mother's hand and looking around at everything. It was later at night but the sky was clear and the moon was full. The young woman stopped at a house she knew, the one her parents moved into on the day of her wedding. She sighed heavily as she looked down at her daughter. "We'll be staying here until I can charter us a boat to Kyoshi Island," she smiled. "I think you'll like it there. It isn't like here. There's green everywhere, and it's really close to the ocean, though it is cooler. I lived there for a while after the war."

Detia only looked at her mother, revealing none of her inner thoughts. With another sigh, Ty Lee knocked on the door to the house. Her parents were still awake, she could tell because most of the lights were on, but a male servant answered the door. He looked from Ty Lee then to the little girl holding her hand. "Who is it?" Ty Lee heard her mother's voice as clear as day come from behind the man. But before he could answer the woman, who looked much like Ty Lee – same hair color and same basic facial bone structure – pushed him out of the way. The woman's deep grey eyes looked from Ty Lee then to Detia, just as the man had done. "Ty Lee?" the woman asked.

Ty Lee smiled, but Detia frowned, her little face scrunching up in a confused manner. "Hi, Mom," Ty Lee replied, confirming her mother's question about her identity.

"Ty Lee!" the older woman exclaimed as she pulled her daughter into the house. "What on earth are you doing here? Is everything alright?" Before Ty Lee could even get a word in, the woman continued, she only hesitated for a second. "You really couldn't have picked a better time. Yi Min and Li Mei decided to spend some time with us and Jai Li and Li Ming are coming by tomorrow, all with their children of course. And now that you're here, almost the whole family will be here. Isn't that wonderful!"

"Yeah," Ty Lee replied, her mother missing as she grimaced, but Detia didn't.

~x~

Azula woke the next morning to an empty bed. She assured herself that it didn't mean anything; Ty Lee often fell asleep in Detia's room when she went there. The Fire Nation Princess stood and dressed, then walked her way to the little monster's room, fully expecting to see her wife and that thing sleeping together. But the room was empty and looked to have been ransacked, with toys and clothes lying all over the floor. Her first thought sent her heart beat racing. She stood there clutching the frame of the door, scorching it with blue fire, until her heart stopped racing.

With all the calm she could muster, the princess walked towards where her brother and his wife often had breakfast. Mai was there alone, but before she could approach her old friend, a hand grabbed her elbow. She looked up sharply at her brother. "I need to talk to you," he said lightly as she pulled her elbow out of his grip.

"I can't," she replied quickly. "Have you seen Ty Lee?"

"It concerns her, come on." He motioned for her to follow him.

He led her to his study, sitting himself in one of the chairs facing the fire, motioning for his sister to sit in the other. She did, though a little perplexed as to why. They were silent, both staring into the fire, until he sighed. "Ty Lee left," he finally replied.

"What? Where?" Azula asked rapidly.

"I don't know. She mentioned Kiyoshi Island, but I don't know if she'll go there right away." Zuko answered, watching his sister's reaction.

Azula's eyes sparked as her breathing became labored, but this only lasted a second as she studied the fire and calmed. "She left me," she finally replied, "for that little monster."

"Your little monster," Zuko remarked, watching as his sister's shoulders tensed.

"So you believe it to, dear brother?" she said after a while, unable to keep the venom from her voice, not that she was trying. "That that thing…that Detia is mine."

He nodded. "There's no believing, Azula. I know she's your daughter. If you spent half an hour with her, you'd know it too." Azula scoffed. "And of course, I asked Aang." His sister's golden eyes turned to meet his.

"You did what?"

He shrugged. "I was just as skeptical as you, Azula. I just couldn't figure out how someone could or would take advantage of Ty Lee. She may be airheaded sometimes but she's not a push over, and she knows her body pretty well from what Mai tells me. Then there's the 'you' factor. I believe I've said it before, there's not a person on this planet that would hurt Ty Lee simply because you claim her. That would be suicide." He chuckled and shook his head. "I figured the Avatar could go into the spirit world or something and find out the truth."

"And?" Azula almost demanded when he hesitated, sitting on the edge of her seat.

"The way he explained it made sense. I'm not sure I can. So, I asked him to come and explain it to you. He should be here in two days, maybe one, but at the most two."

Azula sighed. "That doesn't change the fact that she left me."

"You're just giving up?" he questioned.

"What would you have me do!" she snapped at him.

"Go after her!" he answered, standing as his temper flared. "She loves you, spirits only know why, and you love her. She would come back if you only asked her. Ty Lee said so herself."

Azula stood, glaring at her brother, barely containing her own anger. "Whatever," she said and stormed out of the study, her amber eyes as cold and hard as ice.

Zuko sighed and sat back down in the chair. Mai, who had snuck in earlier, approached her husband. He smiled when she sat in his lap, a long slender leg on either side of his. She kissed him lightly. "You did your best," she whispered in his ear.

~x~

Azula almost smirked as the guards went rigid around her when she passed. A flash of lightning white caught her eye. Her mind automatically jumped to Detia and the hope that maybe they hadn't left the palace after all. So she followed it. She only caught glimpses of the white but was sure it was hair, as she followed it to an older part of the palace. A part of her recognized the halls that she went down but that was the last thing on her mind as she turned a corner and there was nothing. A flutter of an old, worn wall scroll caught her attention. Her golden eyes locked on it like a hawk, and she walked towards it.

With a quick flurry, she pulled the cloth back and was met with what looked like a plain wall. Her eyebrow lifted as her manicured hand gently pressed on the wall. It gave a slight creak but otherwise didn't move. With confidence that the wall wasn't just a wall, she shoved her body against it. It gave way easily, sending her tumbling into a hidden room, dust flying everywhere. From the floor, she looked up and directly into golden eyes that matched her own. On instinct, she gasped and moved back, her back hitting the wall she fell through. When the dust and her heartbeat settled, she realized what she was looking at was a painting of what, at first glance, looked like Detia. Azula stood, dusting off her red robes, then walked closer to the painting. Brushing a hand over the painting a thick layer of dust flew off. "It couldn't be that little monster," she said lightly to herself and examined the painting closer.

The child in the painting had the same eyes and hair color as Detia but was much older. While it was true Detia looked a couple years older than what she was, the girl in the picture looked at least five or six. Her features were sharp and defined, even in the painting. Her pale skin gave off an inhuman glow. Her long white hair was streaked with visible pale yellow and light blue highlights splayed out behind her, taking up most of the canvas. Azula stared at the calm, sad, and tired expression that did not belong on the face of a small child. She concluded that this was not the little demon that Ty Lee gave birth to. Though, she wouldn't so much as say that it wasn't a picture of Detia in a past life. Only that it wasn't her now.

Carefully, Azula removed the remaining dust from the picture, finding the signature of the artist. Azula gasped as she read the name of her mother and then looked back at the painting. She didn't know her mother could paint. Azula jumped at the sudden sound of something dropping to the floor and turned to that direction. A small leather bound book sat on the dusty floor, its pages opened to almost the middle. Slowly, Azula walked over to the book and picked it up. If she were to guess, it looked like a journal. With a shrug, the princess examined the words on the page the book was opened to. Immediately she recognized her mother's flowing script. She humphed. "So, I found my mother's journal. How interesting," she stated out loud.

The first sentence on the page stated a date. Azula quickly calculated the page to be written about the time she was two or three. But the second sentence caused the air in her lungs to freeze and her heart to stop. "Today," the script said, "my daughter died."

The Princess of the Fire Nation stumbled backwards till her legs hit the edge of a chair, and not caring how dusty it was, Azula fell into it. She re-read the sentence three times before she could go on to the next. "Ozai said it was a training accident," Ursa continued, a smudge of where a drop of water had fallen on the paper. Azula imagined it to be a tear. "He said that she had gotten in the way as he was showing her a stance, and she was hit. I don't know what really happened, but I know that that was not it. I had found out by accident. After whatever had happened, Ozai had her body placed in a hidden room. I don't know what story he would have told me had I not found her. She was on a table on her back, most of her clothes burnt in the back.

"The look in her eyes was what frightened me most. Usually, her eyes were always full of life and fire. But not then. They were cold and dead. I hate to admit it but I didn't cry." Azula scoffed at the sentence. Of course her mother didn't cry, she thought she was a monster. "Crying would have made it final. It was storming outside; the world must have known that it would lose one of its most precious children, my little princess. The window was opened, blowing rain and harsh winds into the room. She was well enough away from it, so I didn't bother to close the window. I was in there for hours, just watching, hoping she would wake up. I had laid my head down for a second, clutching her cold hand.

"A particularly bright flash of lightning caught my eyes and I looked up. What I saw in front of me is something I'll never forget. A child, probably only a couple years older than Azula, stood in front of me. Her hair was as white as lightning, streaked with light blue and yellow, flowing down to her knees. She was like a spirit, her body, clothed only in white, was nearly transparent. Then she looked up at me, her eyes were the same golden as Azula's, speaking volumes of sadness and loneliness. I begged her not to take my baby, throwing myself over my daughter.

"The girl only looked at me, and without my consent, my body moved away from Azula. Then the spirit did me a favor as she placed her transparent hand over my daughter's chest. Without moving her mouth she said one sentence to me, 'It's not her time,' and her hand started to glow. The light was so bright that I had to close my eyes. When I opened them next, the girl was gone and my daughter was breathing. I don't think I let her go until she started to squirm. She didn't remember what had happened, and there were no scars on her body. When I told Ozai what exactly had happened, he said he didn't believe me but the smile on his face frightened me.

"But my daughter lived. This day will forever be the day I learned that my daughter, my little baby, was protected by the gods."

Azula nearly scoffed. "Protected by the gods," she repeated scornfully. "Where were the gods when I lost my mind? Where are the gods now, huh?" she asked the air.

"They're not here," A voice strikingly similar to Detia's replied from behind the princess. Azula froze at the voice, for some reason unable to make her body turn around. "You aren't keeping your end of the promise." Thunder rolled outside, which Azula found odd considering it was clear and sunny before she entered the room. The spirit in her mother's journal suddenly appeared before her, older by only ten years in appearance, still as transparent as in the journal. She walked as if her feet weren't touching the ground, almost as if she were floating, as she ventured toward Azula. Glued to the large chair as she was, Azula did not move, but made sure her face did not show any of her fear, only her displeasure. The spirit's golden eyes bore down on her with cold calculation. "Do not confuse me as your mother did," she said, though her mouth did not move. "I am no spirit." Her long white hair flowed down to the floor, rippling against the silky fabric wrapped loosely around her body. "We had a deal," it said as it placed a hand on Azula's cheek, causing the princess to flinch involuntarily.

The weight of the non-spirit's aura weighed down on Azula heavily, making it hard to breathe, as she leaned over the prone princess. The implied threat clear to the firebender. "I don't know what you're talking about," Azula managed through clenched teeth. The non-spirit smiled slightly and backed away. Her golden eyes softened as they appraised the princess. She turned, not saying a word more. "Wait," Azula said, against her better judgment. The non-spirit stopped but didn't turn. "Is…is Detia my daughter?"

The creature's golden eyes locked with Azula's. "She was part of the promise," it said without speaking.

With a flash of lightning, the creature was gone, and Azula could move again. With the ability returned to her, the princess quickly stood, scanning the room as the sun filtered through the one large window. Nothing was there. She ran a hand through her charcoal hair and sighed. She was losing it, again. For a few minutes, she set back down in the dust-covered chair. Finally, she picked up the journal and put it in her robe. Before leaving, she looked around the small hidden room. Aside from the chair and the painting, there was a small bookshelf stuffed full of leather-bound books, a spot open from where the journal was. Choosing a few at random, she realized that they weren't real books, only blank paper bound by leather. For some reason, her mother saw fit to hide her feelings.

Azula shrugged it off and continued to look around. Beside the chair was a small twin-sized bed, covered in dust and red silk covers. She coughed when she gently patted the bed and dust flew into the air. Waving the air clean, she noticed a few canvases hidden behind the one of the non-spirit. Curiously, Azula walked over to the canvases and rifled through them. There were seven. Most were of scenery. There was one of Zuko and she assumed herself when they were still very young, Azula guessed that she couldn't even walk yet, sleeping together. A smirk crossed her lips as she thought that Zuko would probably like that one. Another, the one she liked the most, was of her and Ty Lee.

They were both around seven, she guessed. Ty Lee had stayed over and they had both fallen asleep near a fire. In the painting, Ty Lee had roamed over to Azula and had her head in the crook of the princess' neck and shoulder. Instead of waking and pushing her away, Azula had pulled her friend to her, wrapping an arm loosely around her waist. Their hands still clasped. She stared at the picture for minutes, though it felt like hours, as she was reminded how much she loved that silly little airheaded acrobat. Silently, she vowed that she would do whatever it took to get her wife back.

Behind that one was a similar painting, only with Zuko and Mai sitting in a chair sleeping together. It made Azula wonder if her mother could see the future. So with new determination, Azula took the paintings of her and Ty Lee, and the one of Mai and Zuko, along with the journal and left the room. She made sure the passageway was sealed tight before heading into one of the main halls. She stopped suddenly when Zuko rushed pasted her. "Zuko?" she called, causing him to stop in his tracks.

"Azula!" he yelled as he turned and ran to her, embracing her in tight hug. She tensed at the unfamiliar contact, making sure to keep the paintings out of the way of harm. He broke the hug but not the contact. "Where the hell have you been?"

She lifted an eyebrow. "What do you mean? I couldn't have been gone for more than an hour."

He looked at her quizzically. "Azula, it's almost ten o'clock at night. You've been missing for over twelve hours. We thought you may have done something drastic."