The first time the two of them arrive at the asylum to see Azula, both are shocked to see the other one there.
"What are you doing here?" they both ask at the same time.
Mai starts, "I'm honestly surprised to see you here, considering what happened between the two of you at the circus. You aren't angry about that anymore?"
Ty Lee shrugs, "I mean, I wouldn't say that I'm completely over that, or what happened at the Boiling Rock. But I'm willing to put all of that aside for right now and try to help Azula get better. That's what friends are for after all, right?", she asks, before realizing that Mai might not consider Azula to be a friend anymore after everything that happened.
"You-you do still consider her to be a friend, right?"
"Would I be here right now if I didn't?" Mai responds.
Ty Lee shrieks with joy and crushes Mai in a hug. The other girl loosely brings an arm around Ty Lee's shoulder.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm still pissed off with her for locking us up the way she did, just because I had the audacity to save my boyfriend who happens to be her brother. There's a bunch of other things that I want to discuss with her as well, but like you said, it can wait until she's better and in her right mind."
Ty Lee steps back and nods, "Yeah! Now let's go. We shouldn't keep Azula waiting for too much longer."
Mai follows behind her, not exactly sure what they should be expecting from this visit. Whatever she had imagined couldn't have prepared her for the sight they were met with upon entering Azula's room at the asylum.
When they first enter her room, she doesn't even notice that they are there. Azula is muttering to herself while staring at the corner of her room. While Ty Lee tries to get her attention, Mai tries to figure out what exactly is Azula looking at and who is she talking to. None of the answers that she comes up with satisfies her, so she decides to go to the source and ask directly.
"Azula, who are you talking to?" Mai asks
Azula stops and slowly turns towards the two girls. The look that she gives them makes them pause.
It is almost as if she's not really seeing them.
Azula chuckles, "I see what you're doing, mother. Trying to make me lose my mind even further by making me think that my two friends who betrayed me actually came to visit me? Nice try, but I'm not falling for it."
Ty Lee grabs her hand, "Azula, we really are here! Look! It's really Mai and I!"
"Liar! Why would you two even want to be anywhere near me after what happened?! Mother is always telling me the two of you were never really my friends, and I'm starting to think that she was right."
"Well I don't know who this 'mother' person is, but she sure sounds like a far cry from the woman that I remember." Mai says.
Azula and Ty Lee both turn to look at the older girl.
Mai sighs, "Look Azula, what happened between us at the Boiling Rock needs to be discussed. I'm still pissed off with you for deciding that my boyfriend, your brother, deserved to die just because he turned traitor, and I'm sure that Ty Lee has some words for you too. But that doesn't mean that we don't care about you. That we never cared about you."
Ty Lee nods, "Mai is right, Azula! Even after everything that's happened, we still see you as our friend. And we've always cared about you! That won't stop just because things ended the way that they did between us. Like Mai said, there's a lot that the three of us have to talk about. Things that can wait for next time, when you're aware enough of your surroundings to hear them. And to listen to us."
Ty Lee releases Azula's hand and pulls the girl into a hug, "If I wasn't really here, I wouldn't be able to do this, now would I?"
Before Azula can reply, Ty Lee breaks the hug and moves towards the door, Mai following close behind her.
"We'll come by again, don't worry. And you better enjoy that mochi that we got for you!" Ty Lee says, before walking out of the room along with Mai.
If not for the plate of mochi, a note from Ty Lee, and one of Mai's signature knives right next to the plate, Azula really would have thought that those two were nothing more than a hallucination.
Most of their visits to Azula go the same. Either she's in the process of seeing yet another hallucination of her mother, or she's eerily silent. They aren't sure if they prefer the eerie silence, though. It's so unlike the girl that they grew up with. They suppose that it's better than seeing her hallucinating and being unable to do anything to help her, though. Whenever they leave for the day, they always make sure to place down a plate of mochi, a letter written by either one of them, and one of Mai's knives next to Azula. This way she'll know that they were actually there.
Nothing of note ever really happened during these visits…. until one particular day.
The two girls had gone to see Azula at the asylum as they had always done for the past couple of weeks. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until they requested to see her, and one of the doctors denied them.
"Why not? You let us see her any other time," Mai said.
"Yes, well, today there have been some…. complications with the princess."
"Such as?" Ty Lee asked
The doctor sighs, "I have no clue what she sees, and quite frankly, I don't want to know. But today, her hallucinations really got out of hand, to the point where she attempted to firebend at one of the doctors when they went into her room because they heard her shouting. It got so bad that we had to sedate her."
The two girls blink, hoping that they are mistaken and didn't just hear that.
"Hold on, are you seriously telling us that you have no idea what she's been seeing?" Mai asks.
The doctor nods.
"But that doesn't make any sense! She's here to receive proper care in order to get better! Surely her brother told you what her hallucinations have been about!" Ty Lee says.
"Well you see, that's the thing. It didn't really seem as if the Fire Lord knew what was wrong with her either. And really, who could blame him? These people aren't the easiest to deal with."
They couldn't have heard that right. Zuko didn't know what was wrong with Azula? Then why had he sent her here in the first place?!
After a while, Mai speaks up.
"I see. In that case, we'll be going now. Come on, Ty Lee."
"Where are we going?"
"On a date with the Fire lord. I would just love to hear his explanation for this, wouldn't you?"
Zuko puts his face in his hands, "What do you want me to say, Mai?"
"Well for starters, how about why you put your sister in that place when you apparently have no idea what's wrong with her."
"It was Uncle's idea, ok? After our agni kai and when she calmed down somewhat, she was saying things that didn't make sense. She kept talking as if our mother was actually there. Uncle suggested placing her in the asylum, since the specialize in handling people with problems like Azula has."
"Well that's funny, because the doctor that Ty Lee and I spoke to said that they had no clue what Azula was hallucinating and that they didn't really want to know either. So how exactly are they helping her get better?"
"What do you want me to do about it? In case you forgot, I have a nation to run now!"
"You're the Fire lord. Like it or not, you're responsible for Azula's well-being simply because she's a Fire Nation citizen, not to mention your heir. So either you do something about it or Ty Lee and I will. I'm pretty sure that you don't want us doing a prison break, now do you?"