A. N. : I live ! I live and I'm back with some girls. Gotta introduce future important characters after all... (Gotta get myself used to writing them too...)

It feels good to be home.

Well, not that Ty Lee really sees the palace as her home, it's too big and too red and too impersonal to feel like home to anyone – except maybe Azula ?

No, for Ty Lee, home is where her friends are. Where she can laugh and smile and do what she likes and be her own person.

Therefore, she is home.

Azula said their work is done and Ty Lee can leave and join her circus again if she wants to, but… Well, the circus was great, she could be who she wanted and there was no one quite like her, and she loved it.

It's just…

She doesn't feel like she wants to leave just yet. Like she should leave.

Mai's aura has been a sad, disappointed gray ever since Azula told what happened with Zuko. She was hoping, holding to long gone memories, and now that Zuko betrayed, she is forced to let go.

Ty Lee wants to help her feel better, help her get over the heartbreak and make her aura a deep black again – it's odd really, that the healthy color for Mai is black, but it is, and Ty Lee misses it.

Azula's aura switches between deep red and purple these days too. Often when Zuko is talked about – and the switches are so violent, it can't be good.

But she still acts the same, so things are relatively fine. The day Azula loses control is the day everything goes to hell.

Thankfully, Ty Lee isn't on her own with the Make Everyone Feel Better operation. Qin helps sometimes.

His aura is a deep green, with gold sparkles like Azula or the Fire Lord. Very pretty. He said the sparkles are probably there because he was a noble before joining the Dai Li – a fifth son with no political future and no regrets over giving up his privileges.

Except maybe for the fact that the stone gloves tend to damage his hands and nails, and stop him from wearing rings and the likes. Apparently that's a thing Earth nobles love, having pretty hands with lots of ornaments and all that. No wonder their nail polish is so good.

Qin is always called when there's a manicure party. It's better to be an even number, he is good at this, and that way he can help Ty Lee find ideas to lighten the mood and take everyone's mind off the sad things.

Not that he helps a lot with the mood. Dai Li agents are too serious to be fun.

But despite being the less fun person to ever befriend Ty Lee, Qin is also… Calming. Somehow. Probably because he himself is always calm. Ty Lee tried breathing along him once, just to see, and after three breaths she almost fell asleep.

She wonders if it's an earthbender thing, a Dai Li thing, or just a Qin thing.

Probably a Qin thing, given his idea of a good time is almost always meditation-related. Which honestly doesn't help with the problem at hand. Well, the tea party was a good idea but –

No. Actually the tea party was the worst attempt at lightening the mood yet. It reminded everyone of Azula's uncle, and so it also reminded everyone of Zuko.

Ty Lee sighs. Uh, sighing while back bending feels super strange actually, it's kind of funny how the air flows differently.

Mai is feeding the turtle-ducks, and it should be a nice, relaxing activity for her, but instead her aura is even sadder than usual. Like fog in a sunless valley, or ash during a volcanic eruption. It's really, really not good but why –

Oh. Zuko used to do that. When they were kids and things were simpler. When Azula's mom was here, and Zuko was here and not a traitor, and no one's heart got broken over lost hope.

It's hard, seeing Mai like this. It's even harder to see her pretend she is unaffected, to see other people buy that lie. So Ty Lee sits next to her and looks at the pond.

Mai won't talk. That's just how she is. Ty Lee doesn't really understand how she manages to keep to herself like that – maybe she doesn't and that's why she's all gray.

Mai won't talk, until she does, and what she spits out is an angry I'm fine, which sounds about as convincing as a turtle-duckling trying to hold a knife.

Ty Lee takes a second to smile at the image before turning to Mai, who glares and goes on to say that she wants Ty Lee to stop – she's fine, she doesn't need anyone to pamper her –

It was a stupid childhood crush that she should've grown out of a long time ago, but she didn't, because he was gone and she was in love with a memory, with the idea of him, of course he would've changed, even if she never expected him to betray the whole Nation, she should've known he wasn't the same person as before, it was stupid and she –

Ty Lee puts her arm around Mai's shoulders.

Her jaw is clenched, her brows furrowed to the point it probably hurts, and she is clearly not fine, but Ty Lee doesn't say anything. Mai opened up on this, but she is trying to keep the rest to herself, all bottled up, and Ty Lee may not approve, but she will respect her choice.

Mai breathes out, and her aura looks a bit blacker, somehow.