This is a drabble I actually wrote in the summer of '08, but never posted anywhere outside the Tyzula LJ community. I have a few more drabbles of that nature (for this pairing and others), which I will likely upload soon. Enjoy! :D
Cement was cold.
In her years with the circus, Ty Lee had become accustomed to sleeping on the ground, but even the dirt had its own sort of softness. Not the cement. It was hard and cold and completely unforgiving, with jagged patches that dug into her skin.
Not unlike Azula.
It was her own fault, all said and done. The second Azula showed up at the circus her mind had screamed at her to run, get away, not fall into that trap again... but at the same time she knew she never would. Whether it was some secret masochistic desire or just her own damn over-optimism she never knew, but she could never turn Azula down. No matter what it was she wanted.
She knew that love wasn't supposed to be like this. Love was supposed to be warmth and trust and… beautiful. She and Azula were nothing like that. They were dark corners and sharp edges. They were whispered curses up against a wall and nails digging into skin. This was not what other people meant when they spoke of "love", though Ty Lee thought it really was beautiful in its own twisted way.
She knew what they whispered about her in the halls of the prison. They pitied her, the toy Azula had tossed aside. Poor innocent girl, used and abused by the princess. They would never believe that Ty Lee had often given as good as she got. She wondered what they would say if she told them she wasn't the only one who screamed herself hoarse on a nightly basis.
Even Mai pitied her, when she wasn't sitting in a corner looking, somehow, stoic and forlorn at the same time. Mai and Zuko had something different. They had "real" love, the kind she should envy. But she never did. Ty Lee never wanted what she was supposed to want. She was not supposed to be sitting in this prison wishing Azula would visit her, hoping the princess would pin her hands to the unforgiving walls and tell her exactly what she thought of her. But she was.
And when all was said and done, Ty Lee knew it would happen again. Someday. It was a vicious circle, a violent dance that always led them right back to each other.
After all, pink was only one shade away from red.