AN: This is my first story for AtlA, so I'm still kind of figuring things out. Go easy on me. I'm new to the fandom, but I just had so many TyZula feels that I needed to get them out. I hope you guys enjoy it. This first chapter might move a little fast, but that's because I'm lazy and want to get on with the real plot as soon as possible.

As far as prisons went, it wasn't a bad one. She thought that was probably because it was for….. well it was for people who weren't well. She didn't like the word 'crazy,' even though she knew it was appropriate. It just didn't seem right, didn't fit with her vision of the world. And it added to her guilt.

"I don't know what you think is going to happen," Mai said as they walked. "She won't talk to you. She won't talk to anyone."

Ty Lee sighed but then plastered a smile on her face. "Maybe she just needs to see a friendly face."

"I'm not friendly?"

Ty Lee giggled but didn't take the bait. They both knew exactly how friendly Mai's face was. "You know what I mean, Mai. Besides, I know you don't have time to visit her all that much, what with you getting ready to be the new Fire Lady." Mai was going to marry Zuko the next summer and officially become the Queen of the Fire Nation. Ty Lee was happy for her friends, she really was, but she was also sad that not everyone in their group had fared so well.

"She doesn't want me to anyway." There was no hint of regret in Mai's voice. Then again, there never was.

"She'll come around," Ty Lee assured her taller friend.

"It's been over a year, Ty Lee."

"Yeah, but she was…. well… you know….. for most of that, right?"

"Insane?" Ty Lee winced at the choice of words. "Yeah, she was. She still is, Ty." There was some warning in Mai's voice. A warning not to expect too much from the visit.

"We'll see." Ty Lee had a feeling that she might have more luck than Mai. The future Fire Lady sighed and rolled her eyes, but said nothing else. Ty Lee was glad because the farther they walked the more her stomach clenched. Despite the happy face she had put on for Mai, she was incredibly nervous about this meeting. It had been over a year since she had seen the prisoner. A year since she had betrayed her.

Ty Lee blamed herself for Azula's descent into madness.

She knew that it was her betrayal that had caused the princess to lose her grasp on reality. Azula could have handled Mai's. She had been angry, but she would have gotten over it. But Ty Lee was an entirely different story. As much as Azula liked to pretend that she didn't need anyone, she needed Ty Lee. She needed that one person who had never left her, never tossed her aside. And Ty Lee had betrayed her.

It had been a split second decision. All she could think was that she could not let Azula kill Mai. As the two had faced off, Ty Lee had known that look in Azula's eyes. The princess was going to kill Mai. And Ty Lee had reacted out of pure instinct. The weeks in prison had given her a lot of time to think, and it had given her new friends in the Kyoshi warriors. Friends who didn't try to control her with fear, but ones who actually showed her affection. It had been an enlightening experience, and she had started to think that maybe Azula had never cared about her at all.

That was, until she got out and heard about the fate of the daughter of Ozai. According to Li and Lo it had started after Azula returned from the Boiling Rock, after she had lost her friends. She kept insisting that everyone was going to betray her. The new hit Ty Lee like a ton of bricks. She had done that to Azula. She had reduced the once powerful princess into a raving mess. It did not make her feel powerful. It made her feel sick.

Even worse, she had not been able to gather the courage to come and visit Azula before then. A whole year. She had spent it in the Earth Kingdom with the Kyoshi warriors, telling herself that Azula would not want to see her anyway, that she wasn't a coward, that she was making the right decision. But as Mai stopped outside of Azula's cell and Ty Lee saw the princess for the first time since the Boiling Rock, she knew she had been wrong.

The cell was clean. There was a neat little cot in the corner, a table on one side that had a few books stacked on it. Some writing materials. There was even a window letting in light through the iron bars. But Ty Lee couldn't look at any of those things. Instead, her attention was taken by the hunched figure sitting in the middle of the floor, her long black hair spilling around her face, obscuring it from view. She had her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them. She looked completely and utterly defeated and pathetic.

It made Ty Lee want to cry.

But she didn't. She put on her best and brightest smile as Mai stepped forward.

"You have a visitor, Azula," Mai said casually. "I told her you wouldn't be interested, but she insisted on coming anyway." Azula lifted her head and glared at Mai before letting her amber eyes slip past her to Ty Lee. For a moment, confusion clouded her eyes, then recognition, and finally a cold and burning hatred that made Ty Lee flinch.

"H-hey Azula," she said timidly, her smile faltering under the withering glare. "I'm sorry I didn't come to see you earlier, but I was really busy with the Kiyoshi warriors in the Earth Kingdom. I've been learning a lot from them and it's been really fun." Azula's brows furrowed even deeper, but she still said nothing. Ty Lee looked at Mai for assurance, but the other girl simply shrugged.

"I told you she wouldn't talk."

"Come on, 'Zula," she tried again, using the childhood nickname. "I thought we could talk, you know? About stuff. About anything, really. I missed you."

Azula's lips rose in a sneer and she lifted her head, looking almost like her old self again in her haughty anger. "Talk. That's all anyone wants to do. That's all they ever want me to do." Even Mai looked startled by the words. "Alright, fine. I'll talk. I'll tell you how I've been. Is that what you want?"

Ty Lee nodded mutely, apprehension creeping at the fringes of her senses.

"Things are shit, Ty Lee," she said, her voice falsely sweet. "I'm here in the nuthouse because you betrayed me. You and that tramp next to you. I'm here when I should be ruling the Fire Nation, not my idiot brother. It makes me so sick to think of it. He's probably running it into the ground. And you want to know how I am? How do you think? All day every day they poke and prod me and try to make sense of me. Of poor little Azula. So broken and damaged. There just must be something wrong with me. Something they can fix. Well, the only thing wrong with me is that I'm too good for any of you. Especially you, Ty Lee. You are too stupid and simple and appallingly weak for me to ever give you the time of day. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to rot away in peace." With that, she turned her face to the wall, leaving Mai and Ty Lee to watch her in stunned silence.

After a moment, where Ty Lee realized that she was crying softly, Mai ushered them away. "Well…. you did get her talking." This just made Ty Lee cry harder, burying her face in her hands, hunching her shoulders over. "Look, why do you care what she says? She's crazy, Ty. She always was. Just think about all the times she used us and about all the times she manipulated you and insulted you. She's gotten what she deserves."

"No one deserves what happened to her," Ty Lee whispered. She knew the true depths of Azula's pain. Her struggled to please her father, the loveless childhood where her mother obviously favored her brother. The way she put her entire self into completing the tasks her father had set before her, only to be cast aside when Ozai no longer needed her. No one else saw what turmoil lay beneath the mask of anger that Azula always wore. No one but Ty Lee.

"Are you kidding? Ty, she's a monster."

"No she's not!" Ty Lee turned to glare at Mai. "She's the most beautiful, smartest, perfect girl in the world!" And Ty Lee believed those words with all her heart. She just knew that Azula needed help to realize it.

"Whatever." Mai let the subject drop. "Anyway, I don't think you should visit her for a while."

"Yeah, okay." Ty Lee didn't know if she could handle the harsh words that Azula would throw at her anyway. "I have stuff to do anyway." With one last glance down the hall, they left.

Ty Lee didn't go back for two months for one reason or another. Mostly because every time she thought about it, all she could see were Azula's eyes and the hatred within them. But eventually she was able to gather her courage. This time, she went without Mai, hoping that Azula would be more receptive if it was just her. She even dismissed the guards as she stood outside the cell.

Azula looked up at her with disinterest this time. "Oh, it's you again."

"I… I wanted to see how you were doing." She grimaced as the words left her mouth. That was not what she had meant to say. Azula glared.

"Why would you think that anything had changed since the last time you were here?"

"I….I didn't think…"

"No. You never do." Azula regarded her coldly. "That's because you don't have a brain inside that big empty head."

"Azula…."

"Why do you insist on bothering me? Is it some sort of gloating thing? Are you proud that you brought down the mighty Azula?"

"No. It's not that at all," Ty Lee insisted, stepping closer to the bars. The guards had told her to be careful. Azula still had her fire bending and even though her hands had been bound for the visit, she could still breathe fire. "I'm just….I'm worried about you."

Azula snorted.

"I am. I…. Azula, please…"

"Get out." The princess's voice was harsh and unyielding. When Ty Lee didn't move, Azula lunged forward, eyes blazing. "I said get out! Do you think I want to talk to you? Did you really think it would make me feel better? You must be dumber than you look. Gods, you make me sick." Ty Lee fled, not wanting the guards to see her cry again. She could hear Azula's high, maniacal laughter following her, cutting deeper and deeper until she thought her heart might shred to pieces under its cruelty.

She did not go back until Azula's seventeenth birthday. She had left the Kyoshi warriors. They made her think of Azula. Everything made her think of Azula. She rejoined the circus, even though that reminded her of Azula, too. At least there she was doing something that made her happy. She was with people who were strange and weird, just like her. People who didn't judge her because of her former friendship with the Princess of the Fire Nation. So many people in the Earth Kingdom had. Not that she could blame them. Azula had caused so much pain for so many people. Ty Lee just saw it from a different perspective. Azula had been a creation of her failed parenting, a self-fulfilling prophecy. She had turned into a monster because that was what everyone expected her to be, and Azula was never one to fail to meet expectation. No, she always went above and beyond.

Ty Lee thought, as she stood before a different cell this time, a larger one with better furniture and an actual door instead of bars, that Azula looked…. better. Calmer, perhaps. Not as cold. She was unrestrained, sitting at her table with a book in her hand. She looked up as the door opened.

"Ty Lee," she said raising an eyebrow. Her hair was back in a topknot, not hanging loose and ragged as it had been before. "I wasn't expecting to see you again." Ty Lee thought that she might have heard remorse in those words, but she didn't let herself hope too hard. That would have just caused her more pain later.

"I wanted to wish you a happy birthday," Ty Lee said as brightly as she could, still remembering the last time they had spoken. She held out the small present she had gotten. It had taken some convincing to get the warden to allow her to bring it, but it was harmless, really. "I got you something."

Azula eyes her cautiously, but took the gift without any biting words. She carefully unwrapped it, actually appearing to be in full command of her faculties. Mai had told Ty Lee that Azula had been making a lot of progress. They had the best healers in the four kingdoms looking after her, and slowly, she began to resemble her old self. The one she had been before the whole mess with the Avatar. Still not cuddly and sweet, but then that was never Azula. She was not remorseful for her actions, and she still harbored anger against Zuko and Mai and probably Ty Lee too, but she no longer lashed out blindly, wanting to hurt the nearest thing to her.

Ty Lee watched nervously as Azula's thin fingers unfolded the paper, careful not to tear any of it. People always thought that Azula was only a force of destruction, that she wanted to break and maim and annihilate everything in her path, but they were wrong. She was much too careful for that. All anyone had to do was look at the way she took Ba Sing Se. Nearly completely bloodless. It had been clean and efficient and brutally complete. Perfect. Just like everything she did.

Cold, cruel, efficient. Deadly.

That was what had made her downfall do horrifying to Ty Lee. To see the once perfect princess who could not stand to have a hair out of line dissolve into a psychotic mess had been too much for her. But now… Now the princess was calm and collected once more.

She stared at the gift, not really comprehending. "What is this?" Her tone held all the royal entitlement that she had been brought up with. Had it not been for their surroundings, Ty Lee would have thought that Azula was the Fire Lord, sitting on her thrown and lording over all. It just came so naturally to her.

"Don't you recognize it?"

"If I recognized it, I wouldn't have asked you, would I?" she said calmly, but there was that trademark bite behind the words. Every syllable was meant to tear Ty Lee down, make her feel as though she would never be good enough.

She brushed it off, as she used to do all the time. "It's the friendship bracelet I gave you when you after we thought you killed the Avatar." That had been a good day, she reflected, even though now she felt some guilt over it. Aang was almost a friend to her now. It was good that Azula had not killed him. However, it had been one of the few times Azula had shown true warmth, accepting the gift with a smile and allowing Ty Lee to hug her. "I got it from Mai. Zuko kept a lot of your stuff, and I thought you might want something from home, you know?" Azula appeared torn for a fraction of a second, so quick that Ty Lee was unsure if she had seen correctly.

"You wanted to remind me of my failures?" she asked coolly. She did not look up at Ty Lee, instead focusing on the thing silver chain in her hand.

Ty Lee's smile flickered. She had not thought of that, of how this would remind Azula of everything that had happened, of the reasons she was still locked away. "I…No, 'Zula! I wanted you to remember that no matter what, I'll always be your friend."

"Even after all the things I said to you?" The princess's voice was soft and thoughtful. "Even after throwing you in prison? After using you and threatening you?"

"Well… I mean, yeah." Ty Lee rubbed the back of her neck. When Azula put it that way, it made her wonder why she did want the fire bender's friendship still. She had Mai and Zuko and Suki and Sokka and Katara and Aang and even Toph. None of them treated her like Azula did. None of them had ever purposefully hurt her. But none of them could hold a candle to blazing amazingness that was Azula, daughter of Fire Lord Ozai, princess of the Fire Nation. Ty Lee couldn't explain it, but nothing Azula had ever done to her could make her hate the princess.

"Then you really are an idiot," Azula said. Ty Lee shrank back, expecting another verbal onslaught, but instead, Azula sighed and held out her wrist. "Well, are you going to help me put it on, or not?" Ty Lee squealed with delight, and quickly clasped the chain around Azula's thing wrist.

"Oh, it looks so pretty on you!" she exclaimed. "And look, I found mine, too!" It had been buried deep in her jewelry box, forgotten a long time ago. Now it was displayed proudly on her wrist. "We match!"

Azula rolled her eyes, but Ty Lee thought that she might have seen some quickly hidden affection in the action. It reminded her of all the times that she had said something stupid and Mai would look at her like she was an idiot, but Azula would just accept that was how she was. Azula had always just accepted her that way. Azula had always thought it was fine for her to be circus freak, for her to be a little ditsy, for her to be happy all the time.

"I joined the circus again," Ty Lee said. "I was getting a little bored with warrior work. It wasn't as exciting as it was with you."

"Well, of course not," Azula agreed, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms regally. Ty Lee noticed that she was a little too thin. She should have filled out in the time she had been there. She was not a little girl anymore. She was on the verge of adulthood and should have had an adult body to go along with that. "Nothing is as exciting as I am."

"Yeah, but that's also why I came today." Ty Lee bit her lip nervously. "We were just doing shows here in the Fire Kingdom, but now they want to take the act to the Earth Kingdom."

"And why does that concern me?"

"Well….I wouldn't get to visit you anymore," Ty Lee explained. "I… I always want to, Azula, but I thought that you wouldn't want to see me. And now that we're friends again, I'm leaving." She frowned at how unfair that was.

"My dear brother tells me that if I continue to 'improve,' he might consider letting me have a little more freedom," Azula revealed, examining her nails.

"What? Oh, that's so great, Azula!" Before she thought better of it, Ty Lee rushed forward to wrap her arms around the sitting princess. They both froze as Ty Lee made contact. They stayed like that for a moment until Azula's arms came up to circle around Ty Lee.

"You're the first person in over two years to touch me who was not a doctor or a guard," she said stiffly, her voice sounding strange and strangled to Ty Lee's hears. The acrobat pulled back slightly to look into her princess's face.

"That's horrible," she said. "Everyone needs hugs!" Azula snorted in amusement.

"Ty Lee, you are so naïve sometimes," she said.

"Now I feel even worse about leaving," Ty Lee fretted. "I don't want you to be alone again."

"Your concern is unnecessary," Azula said, her tone business like and crisp. "I will be perfectly fine." Ty Lee was unconvinced. Upon seeing the look on her face, Azula sighed again. "If it makes you feel any better, I promise that I will try to write you if anything is…. bothering me. And I'll come see you at the circus once I get out of this gods forsaken place." She waved her hand absently, indicating the facility.

"Promise?"

"Have I ever lied to you?" Ty Lee thought about it. Azula lied to everyone. She lied all the time in order to get what she wanted. She used and manipulated people so expertly, so beautifully. It had always awed Ty Lee, enthralled and fascinated her how effortlessly Azula could get people to do as she wanted. But if she really thought about it, Azula had never lied to her. Of course, she had manipulated Ty Lee just as much as she had manipulated others, but never with an outright lie. It gave her pause.

"No, you haven't," she said slowly. Then she smiled. "Okay! I can't wait! You'll be free then and we can go have lunch or something and it will be so perfect!"

"Yes, perfect," Azula repeated, her eyes softening for a moment before they regained their usual frost. "I hope to be out of here by this time next year. I have to renounce my title, and give up any claim to the throne. They'll probably banish me, too. But anything's got to be better than this horrid place."

"You won't be a princess anymore?"

"No. Dear Zuzu doesn't want anyone to get ideas about forming a rebellion around me. As if I would waste my time. The Fire Nation is broken and weak now. I would never be so ashamed as to lead a country like this anymore." She tried to hide her bitterness, but Ty Lee could almost taste it. It resonated in Azula's aura. "I have to be a good little girl, and he'll be so gracious as to let me live in Ba Sing Se with darling Uncle Iroh. Now that I think about it, maybe it would be better to stay here."

"What? No!" Ty Lee said. "If you come live in the Earth Kingdom, I'll get to see you more!"

"How selfish, Ty Lee," Azula chided. "Making me suffer through months with my Uncle just so you can see me. A fate worse than death, I assure you."

"Oh, come on Azula. He's not that bad. I actually think he's kind of funny."

"Well, that's because you're an idiot." She suddenly frowned, her careful mask slipping for a moment. Ty Lee wondered if Azula really was as well as everyone seemed to think or if it was all just an act to get her out of prison. "You're all idiots. And Uncle is the leader of the idiots. I hate him. I hate them all." She had started muttering, and Ty Lee's eyes widened. But it only lasted a few seconds before Azula regained control over herself. "But I know what's best for me," she said more brightly. "And that is being anywhere but here. I'll suffocate on my own boredom if I have to stay here much longer."

"Don't worry, Azula. You'll get out of here soon." Ty Lee smiled and patted the princess's hand.

She stayed there for almost another hour, talking to Azula. It was a very one sided conversation as she did most of the talking. Azula simply nodded her head and interjected her opinion now and then. It seemed as though she was starved for attention, letting Ty Lee get away with more than normal, tolerating some things that would have irritated her before. Ty Lee wanted to make the most of it, knowing that it would be a long time before she could see Azula again, maybe years depending on whether or not Zuko thought the princess was rehabilitated enough to be let out.

At the end of their time together, Ty Lee wrapped Azula in another hug with a promise to see her again one way or another. Azula brushed off the promise with a few cool words, but Ty Lee could see that she was clinging to that promise. It made her heart clench just a little to know that Azula might actually still need her.

Because somewhere along the way, sometime in the years they had known each other, Ty Lee had fallen hopelessly and completely in love with her unattainable princess.