Avatar: the last airbender belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and Nickelodeon.
This story takes place during Zuko's banishment but before Aang's rescue from the iceberg. Also, the lines "like asking cat-squirrels about the whereabouts of the Avatar" and "It brought a very bad mental image" both are references to Lost In A Dark Wood's awesome fanfiction, Azula's Fangirl Crush.

-

Zuko let out an exasperated sigh. He should be searching for the Avatar's location to restore his honour and hopefully go back to a normal life, but his uncle had yet again delayed his search to bring him to a circus. A circus. Instead of doing something actually productive, like asking cat-squirrels about the whereabouts of the Avatar, he had to watch a platypus bear dressed as a court jester. As the creature was led outside by a trainer, an elegantly dressed man walked into the circus ring. Zuko barely listened to him. Then he heard it.

"...whose grace and agility rivals those of the airbenders..."

Airbender? His eyes widened. "The Avat-" He started to yell until Iroh put his hand on his mouth, shutting him up.

"Hush !" Iroh said as Zuko glared at him. "We'll see the highpoint of the show, an acrobat!" He then removed his hand, allowing the prince to grunt his annoyance.

Crossing his arms, he looked up and saw that the acrobat, wearing a colourful attire as well as a golden tiara, was already there, gracefully walking on a high wire. He noticed a little platform, surmounted by a short stick, balancing on the wire and his jaw dropped when accomplished a head stand on the stick. With only one hand. He soon recovered from his surprise and disappointment dawned on him. People wasted such talents in entertainments instead of useful endeavours like, say, searching for Avatars.

"Oooh!" Iroh said as the acrobat propelled herself in the air and landed on the wire, standing perfectly balanced. "I always wanted to be in a circus when I was little! Did you too Zuko?"

Oh for the love of Agni. Zuko lamented as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

-

The performance now finished, Zuko walked around the tents, waiting for Iroh to stop complimenting the circus master, artists and other animals and finally come back to the ship.

He had just passed by a particularly big and colourful tent when he was yanked inside.

"What the?" Zuko uttered as he turned his head to see his abductor. "You?" He exclaimed when he discovered it was the acrobat he had watched earlier on.

"Yep. I saw you before you entered the main tent." She replied as drew him toward a chair in the middle of the tent with surprising strength and made him sit on it. She took his helmet off and walked to her dressing table. "Remember me?" She asked as she laid it on the table.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Of course." He sat more comfortably on the chair. "You're the highpoint of the show."

She giggled. "No, silly. Guess again, Zuko." She retorted, causing him to wonder how he knew his name, as she did a perfect cartwheel. "Does it jog your memory?" Zuko resisted the urge to roll his eyes again and shook his head. "Oh well. Maybe that will." She cupped her hands together. "Aw, they're so cute together." She cooed.

Zuko raised an eyebrow. This line was familiar. "You're a friend of my sister...?" She nodded. Zuko restrained a shudder, any friend of his sister could only be his enemy. "What's your name again..." He rubbed his forehead, trying to remember who Azula played with when they were younger. "Ah!" He snapped his fingers. "That's Mai, right?"

"No." She deadpanned. "I'm Ty Lee." Zuko blinked. "Ty Lee, you know? Ty Lee." He blinked again. "C'mon, we were only two playing with Azula, that's not so difficult!"

"...Cartwheel girl?" Zuko ventured uneasily.

Ty Lee frowned. "Yeah. Cartwheel girl."

"And... What do you want anyhow? I've an Avatar to catch, you know." He turned his head toward the exit, waving dismissingly his hand at Ty Lee. "We barely know each other, we have nothing to share." He started to get up when Ty Lee cartwheeled toward him and landed on his lap, sending him back into the chair.

"Then we'll learn about each other!" She wrapped her legs tighter around the chair to prevent Zuko to get up again. "How about it? It's so much better than simply reading your aura!"

Zuko grabbed her waist and tried to pull her off him but failed miserably as it caused the girl to tighten her grip even more. "No." He replied.

"Awww." Ty Lee put her arms around his neck, adding discomfort to his current frustration. "Why?"

"Because I have an Avat-"

"An Avatar to catch, I know, you already said it." She leaned closer. "But you can surely delay it a little to speak with a friend, hm?"

Still struggling to weaken Ty Lee's grasp, Zuko growled. "You're not my friend. You're Azula's."

She smiled. "But that doesn't mean I can't befriend you, does it?"

Zuko sighed. He realized that convincing Ty Lee to let him go was less likely than Ba Sing Se being taken over by, say, a teenaged trio. "Fine. Bonding time. Joy."

"Great!" She exclaimed as she lowered her arms from his neck to hug him. Zuko reflexively hugged her back; not doing so might have hurt her feelings -if this was even possible- and the caring boy from before his banishment had not completely disappeared to the cruel world, no matter how he wanted to please his father and how the Fire Lord despised compassion.

"How about we tell each other what we think of the other?" She proposed with enthusiasm. Too much enthusiasm for him to feel comfortable. "You start!"

Zuko glanced sideward and sighed. He hoped the Avatar wouldn't be as... Ty Lee-ish as her. "As you wish." He actually looked at her since she yanked him inside and noticed -now that she stopped hugging him he could see more than her face, back or hair- that she had changed her outfit. "You're... hm... pink." He wanted to add 'and sitting on me' but he knew it wouldn't have removed her from him.

She giggled. "I guess so. My turn!" She looked him in the eyes. "I think you're..." Still seating on his lap, she moved her upper body away from his own and stroked her chin. "Cute. Yeah, you're cute."

"No, I'm not trying too har-" Zuko blinked; it wasn't the qualifier he expected. "What did you say?"

She giggled. Again. "I said you're cute." He widened his eyes. "What? It's true!"

"My turn now!" Zuko suddenly exclaimed, wanting to escape the situation the fastest he could. "I think you'r-" Ty Lee interrupted with another giggle, though this one had something sinister in its tone.

"Oh, Zuzu..." Zuko cringed at the nickname. "I wasn't finished." She said, smirking and increasing his uneasiness. She grabbed his shoulders and Zuko gasped in surprise as she closed the gap between their lips. She pulled away a mere second after and licked her lips as Zuko stayed petrified. "Not bad, not bad..." She commented before kissing him again, planning to last much longer than one second this time.

Zuko eventually registered what was happening. Most of his mind screamed him to fidget enough to break her clasp and run away, but a little part of his mind, that he rarely if ever listened to told him not to do so. No, this part was not desire. It was survival instinct. It warned him of what Ty Lee, friend of Azula, would do if he resisted. It brought a very bad mental image and Zuko closed his eyes and tried to shake his head to clear off his mind. It was already difficult to think; a girl, quite attractive his common sense admitted -but Zuko never listened to that part of his mind either-, was ravaging his lips. His teeth's stoic defence would soon fall to the relentless assaults of her tongue.

"Prince Zuko?"

Zuko's eyes shot open as he heard his uncle's voice outside the tent while Ty Lee just opened one eye. "Oh, well." She sighed as she pulled away and got off Zuko. She strolled to her dressing table as Zuko stayed on the chair, twitching slightly. Even though Iroh's intervention saved him from whatever would have followed, he was still white with fear. As he was also blushing furiously, his complexion settled for a lovely tone of pink that Ty Lee had most certainly noticed and liked. He considered changing his 'Azula always lies' to 'Girls are crazy', as after all the latter could include the former, but his train of thought was interrupted when Ty Lee came back and put his helmet in his hands.

"Th-thanks..." He managed to stutter as he hesitantly put his helmet on.

"Thanks?" Ty Lee leaned closer to Zuko, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "What for?"

She never had her answer as Zuko was out of the tent in a split second.

-

Many months later, Ty Lee had reunited with her friends. After a parody of hostage exchange, she was walking with Mai beside Azula's litter in New Ozai, previously known as Omashu.

"So, we're tracking down your brother and Uncle, huh?"

"It'll be interesting seeing Zuko again, won't it, Mai?" Ty Lee hoped her friend would have fun when meeting Zuko again. She knew she would...

At the very moment she thought this, far away in the wilderness, a banished prince passing off as a commoner suddenly found himself in very, very, very cold sweat.