A. N. : I have a whole week of rehearsals coming up, so it's kind of hard to think of something else to say... Man I'm tired.
Doctor Sekiji's flames look beautiful.
Ty Lee thought she'd never see fire as pretty as Azula's blue, but the lukewarm flames of fire healers flicker and sparkle like the sea, or like the desert's sand, and it's mesmerizing.
Azula glares at her, though, so Ty Lee quickly returns to her acupuncture scroll. Staring at someone during a checkup is already kind of rude, but Azula never liked being seen when she was ill. She used to forbid everyone but doctors from entering her room if she had to stay in bed, Ty Lee remembers.
She started doing it after Princess Ursa disappeared. Not that she ever liked looking weak, no one does probably, but she wasn't always quite so extreme about it.
Now, she looks like she would strangle Ty Lee for being here, if she had the strength. Like she would scream at Ty Lee, call her names and pretend they aren't friends, pretend Ty Lee isn't needed here by Azula's side – if the inside of her throat wasn't partially burned, that is.
Azula is too weak to walk, to hurt to talk, and she couldn't even resist being brought inside Doctor Sekiji and Tao the pirate's house – for safety, and because with her fever going down, she doesn't need the sun's energy quite as much.
And through all this, Ty Lee decided to stay by her side. Even as Tao the pirate went to sleep after staying up all night to watch over Azula, even as Mai and Qin headed for the village with a list of groceries, even as Doctor Sekiji fed Azula a honeyed medicine to help with the pain in her throat and examined the flow of her chi and the burns one her arms, Ty Lee stayed.
She pretexted wanting to study Doctor Sekiji's techniques – not even a lie, maybe she can learn from him things that aren't in the scrolls she got from Auntie Mei Lin, things that might help her undo the damage Qin did – but really she wants to be there for Azula.
It must be so scary, waking up somewhere she doesn't know, surrounded by strangers, without being able to do anything about it.
Surely a familiar face must help. Azula knows Ty Lee would never let anyone hurt her, not if she can do anything to stop it.
She has to know, right ?
She knows. Of course she knows, she's Azula, she chose Ty Lee to complete her, needs Ty Lee as much as Ty Lee needs her. The reason she alternates between ignoring Ty Lee entirely and glaring at her like Ty Lee is a practice for combustion bending… it's just habit.
It's just because she doesn't like people, doesn't like anyone to see her so weak.
Not because she really thinks Ty Lee only wants to laugh at her, or pity her, or feel superior, or… or…
Ty Lee looks at Azula, purple and green – and shouldn't she have gone back to red now that she feels better ? – and faking sleep to avoid having to look at Ty Lee.
If she was really angry, really upset about Ty Lee being here, she would have thrown some fire at her, or at least sparks. She'd have stolen Doctor Sekiji's flames for herself and sent them after Ty Lee, like the venomous words she used when they left. Or in their stead, since she can't speak.
She'd have found a way. Even through the weakness and the pain and the purple, if Azula really didn't want Ty Lee here, she would have made it known.
But she didn't, and that means she knows Ty Lee genuinely cares. She has to. Even if her aura is as off as Doctor Sekiji's was before he started bending again to save Azula.
Ty Lee looks down at her scroll, at the detailed description of the stomach, the sea of chi, the source of a bender's fire. Looks at the notes in the margins, written in Auntie Mei Lin's hand, about a case of a career officer discharged for cause of injury, who seemed resistant to all treatment for his ensuing loss of drive. There is no note about the conclusion of the case.
Ty Lee feels sick.