Chapter Nine
Just as he began to thrust though, there was a loud, urgent knock at his door. He cursed.
"I'll be back, Azula." He said, kissing her, getting cleaned up as best he could and dressed, going down to the door.
"Oh! Ty Lee! Umm… Please, come in. Did you change your mind about wanting to join us?"
"No I did not! I want Azula back! She's mine and you can't have her!" Ty Lee snapped.
"I-did… Did you and she already…" Ty Lee breathed.
"We got some foreplay in. I was about to start making love to her. But we haven't gotten very far if that's any comfort." Osak said. Ty Lee sighed. In a way, it was. She rushed upstairs and opened a few doors before finding Azula.
"Zu! There you are!" Ty Lee breathed, kissing Azula desperately, running her hands over Azula's bare body.
"Zu, please don't do this. I-I know I can't stop you if you really want to. I know you can make your own decisions. But please! Please come home! We can make love there if you want! I promise I can do anything he can do! I have toys!" Ty Lee begged, realizing how pathetic she sounded.
She didn't care. She needed Azula to understand. Azula gently cupped Ty Lee's cheeks, looking her intensely in the eye.
"This is important to you, isn't it?" Azula asked softly. Ty Lee tensed. There was her dominating voice again.
"I-I guess… I guess it's not that important… Have-have fun with Osak…" Ty Lee whimpered.
Azula couldn't always help being manipulative. It was just drilled into her from a very young age that she had to manipulate to get ahead.
"Ty Lee… Look at me. I said… Look at me." Azula ordered.
"What do you want. Tell me what you really want and I'll listen." Azula said.
"I-I want you to myself. I don't want you to be with Osak. He seems like a nice person, but you're mine, aren't you?" Ty Lee asked.
Azula thought for a short moment.
"Yes. I'm yours. Only yours. Osak, I'm sorry we have to cut this short. But I need to go home with Ty Lee." Azula said calmly, getting dressed and heading out with the braided woman.
-0-
When they went inside, Azula didn't immediately take off Ty Lee's clothes and have sex with her, though Ty Lee was more than willing to have sex if that was what Azula wanted. Ty Lee was actually kind of happy that Azula laid down on the couch and patted the space in front of her.
"Cuddle with me." Azula said. It was a request, though it was stated like an order. Ty Lee hurried over and laid down with Azula, kissing her lovingly.
"We need to talk about this. Are you really attracted to Osak?" Ty Lee asked.
"Yes. But not really enough to want a relationship with him." Azula said. Ty Lee turned away from Azula. She knew it wasn't reasonable to be jealous, to be angry at Azula. But she was sure that she came just in the nick of time, that Azula was just about to go all the way with Osak. She herself had said that he'd been inside her, but they hadn't gotten very far.
"Was he better than me?" Ty Lee breathed.
"What? Better than you at… Oh! No. He didn't even compare." Azula said. It was true enough. Her sex with Osak had been because she still felt a residual sexual attraction to him. She wasn't in love with him. She didn't know him well enough to have an emotional connection with him. Being with Ty Lee was like a dream on the other hand. She never thought Ty Lee would forgive her, that she would take her back.
"Okay…" Ty Lee said, still unable to look Azula in the eye.
"I need to go deal with my school today. I'm expected there to run the advanced classes. Few of my teachers are advanced enough to run them. You have a good day and I'll be home later." Ty Lee said.
"Wait! Ty Lee…" Azula protested.
"WHAT!" Ty Lee suddenly screamed, her eyes lighting up with rage. Azula gasped.
"N-nothing." Azula breathed, recoiling from Ty Lee's explosive anger.
-0-
"Damnit! We've been through this a dozen times! Why do you keep fucking this up!" Ty Lee snarled, grabbing her student's arm and pointing it rather more roughly than she needed to where it was supposed to be.
"I-I'm sorry… I'm trying…" Imalu whimpered. Ty Lee had been abrasive like this all day so far. Imalu usually attended at least one class a day. She was one of Ty Lee's best students, but she was having trouble with one particular maneuver and she and Ty Lee had been working on it for weeks.
Ty Lee clenched her fists, taking deep breaths to try to calm herself down.
"I'm sorry… Yes… yes, you're right. It's okay. We'll get this right together." Ty Lee said, her voice still tense and stiff. Imalu was often quite timid, so having Ty Lee berating her like this wasn't helping her confidence.
"Why don't we take a break? Have some tea?" Ty Lee offered. She needed to calm down. She knew it. But she was still so angry at Azula.
They went to the back room and Ty Lee boiled water.
"What kind of tea would you like?" Ty Lee asked.
"Do you have mint?" Imalu asked.
"Sure. Honey? Lemon?" Ty Lee asked, focusing on her breathing so she could calm down better than she'd been.
"Okay." Imalu said. Ty Lee put the honey and lemon in Imalu's tea.
"Sifu Ty Lee… Can I ask you a question?" Imalu asked. Ty Lee nodded, kneeling at the table and taking a sip of the tea as well.
"Why are you so angry?" The student asked.
"I'm having some issues at home. But that's not your fault and I shouldn't put this on you." Ty Lee said.
"Issues with Princess Azula?"
"Yes. But you don't need to worry yourself about that. It's my business." Ty Lee said. She was going to talk to someone. Uncle Iroh was always willing to make time for her when she came by to have tea and talk. Ty Lee had supported Iroh's business and he was growing quickly. He now had a shop in Republic City as well and was hoping to have one in Omashu as well within a year. He was starting off in the Earth Kingdom but planned to have some in various cities around the Fire Nation as well.
There weren't many businesses that had branches in the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom.
"This is really good." Imalu said, taking a long sip of the mint tea.
"Thank you. I've had a good teacher in Iroh." Ty Lee said.
"How are you doing with… What was his name? Soalom?" Ty Lee asked.
"Yes. We're doing well. I-I have news for you. I haven't even told Soalom yet. I'm pregnant. I'm having his baby. Soon, I'm going to need to start taking easier classes." Imalu said.
"Congratulations! That's great! I can't wait to see your baby! Do you know if they're a boy or a girl yet?" Ty Lee asked.
"Not yet. I only found out a few days ago. But Soalom has had such a bad history with his family that I'm worried about telling him. He's always kind of changed the subject whenever I talk about kids." Imalu said.
"Well… You're going to have to tell him eventually. You can't hide it forever. You can find a way to tell him in a comfortable setting. Maybe take him on a date and tell him over dinner. Ease him into it. I've met Soalom. He's a good guy. He seems really gentle. I'm sure that once he gets used to the idea, he'll be excited." Ty Lee said. Imalu hesitated.
"Well… Maybe. I'll try doing what you suggested." She said, finishing her tea.
"I'm ready to start again if you want to, Sifu." Imalu said. Ty Lee finished off her tea and took Imalu back out to the floor.
"Thanks for meeting with me solo today."
"No problem. I needed to get out of the house anyway." Ty Lee said. She went through the motions of the maneuver again, showing Imalu where her arms and legs should be at each step.
Imalu followed along, flipping in the air and twisting, kicking at the opponent. Ty Lee had developed Chi Blocking as a true style. She'd learned from a teacher who said that she was one of the best students he'd ever had. She advanced Chi Blocking far beyond what her teacher had been able to teach her. She'd experimented with new maneuvers and combined it with a more agile and moving style, preferring to bounce around rather than simply dodge attacks and counter strike.
It took a few hours, but finally, Imalu got the motions right and subdued Ty Lee with them. They both used light strikes so that they wouldn't actually block each other.
"Good work today. Get home and relax. You've done a good job." Ty Lee said, closing up the school and heading out.
"Hey! Ty Lee!" Aang said, waving cheerfully at her. Katara was moving more slowly. It was obvious she was pregnant.
"Aang! You and Katara are pregnant? How far along are you?" Ty Lee asked excitedly.
"Oh, about 6 months I think." Katara said, sitting down on a bench to rest her back.
"Do you know the gender of the baby?" Ty Lee asked.
"We're having twins. Male and female." Katara said. She was nervous. Aang was only 17 and she was only 19. But Aang was already excited and they had gone to the Southern Water Tribe and announced the good news to Katara's father and to her grandmother and new grandfather. They were going to settle down in Republic City for a while as they raised their kids. Katara knew Aang wanted more than just two kids and that he was hoping at least one of the twins was an Airbender.
They had even talked about Aang having children with more than one woman. It wasn't something that Katara loved the idea of. And she could tell that Aang wasn't wild about the idea either. But he was eager to start repopulating Airbenders in the world. It was his duty to do so and if they wanted there to be a new Airbending Avatar in the future, they would have to have at least one Airbender child.
"Come to our place. We can relax for a while." Aang said.
"How is Toph doing?" Ty Lee asked.
"She's in Ba Sing Se right now, running a metalbending school. She's going to expand it to Republic City soon as well." Katara said.
"Good for her. I'll come to your place with you. I'm having some trouble with Azula at the moment. I'm not sure I can be alone with her."
"Big surprise." Sokka rolled his eyes.
"Sokka!" Katara chastised.
"Trouble? Is she being abusive?" Aang asked gently.
"Well… No. She… She cheated on me and I think we're going to work through it eventually. But I'm really hurt and I never knew I could feel this jealous." Ty Lee said.
"I'm sorry that happened. Who was it that Azula cheated on you with?" Katara asked, hugging Ty Lee.
"Some guy named Osak. He was an orderly at the psychiatric center Azula was in. She promises me… Well, now she does that she doesn't like him enough to have a relationship with him. She was just still attracted to him from her time there." Ty Lee said.
"I can see why that would upset you. There are people who can handle poly relationships, and there's nothing wrong with that.
"But it was wrong of her to not be honest about it." Aang said gently.
"No… It's… It's complicated. It just started as dinner at a restaurant. The two of us and Osak. I really did want to thank him for taking good care of Azula while she was there, for being so kind to her. But Azula can't handle her liquor and she got really drunk. She was practically throwing herself at him and the next day, I… I thought if I gave her some slack and let her be with Osak, maybe it would end there.
"But I realized I couldn't handle knowing that she was sleeping with someone other than me." Ty Lee said.
"I understand. Aang and I are talking about bringing Toph into our relationship. Toph understands the situation and has said that she is considering doing it, though she's not sure. Toph has always been very openminded." Katara said.
"But I'm not sure myself, and we still need to talk about it before we make any decisions for certain. And it sounds like Azula made a decision and just expected you to go along with it." Katara said. Ty Lee sighed. It felt that way too, that Azula had fallen back on manipulating and controlling when she wasn't getting her way.
"I'm sure Azula and I will be able to talk things out." Ty Lee said, going to Aang's and Katara's house with them.
"This is a beautiful home." Ty Lee said, looking around and seeing lots of Air Nomad memorabilia. There were tapestries and statues around the house. There were also Water Tribe mementos. There were rumors that an island in Republic City was going to be repurposed as a new Air Temple. Nothing had been decided for sure yet. But word had traveled fast that the council, which Aang was a member of, was talking about it.
"What will you do with this home if the Air Temple is erected?" Ty Lee asked.
"Probably let Sokka and Suki have it. Suki is also pregnant with Sokka's child. They're as that far along as us yet, but they think they're having a boy. Sokka is really excited." Katara said.
"I'm sure he is." Ty Lee said.
"Would you like something to eat? Something to drink?" Aang asked. They didn't have any meat in the house at the moment. But they had some vegetarian treats that they could enjoy. Aang went into the kitchen and brought out cheese and fruit.
-0-
About an hour later, Ty Lee smiled and stood up.
"This was really good. Thank you for having me. But I need to get home. I think Azula and I can start to talk now. I'll keep you updated on how we're doing." Ty Lee said.
"Okay. Have a good night, Ty Lee." Aang said. Katara hugged Ty Lee and walked her out.