Warning: two non-explicit sexual situations, one instance of self harm, and implications of sexual abuse; rating increased to M

October, 105 AG

They had called it a miraculous recovery.

Ty Lee woke up the next morning with Azula still at her side, arm wrapped around her waist, pretending to be asleep. Until she started coughing up something thick and green, that was, and then Azula practically leaped from the bed and out of the room, and Mai and Suki came rushing in with towels and a bucket moments later.

It had continued for most of the day, and she had been in a perpetual state of chills.

"I know I'm disgusting," she told Suki as she was wiping down her face after an episode of dry heaving.

"No one here cares about that," Suki answered gently. She had looked perpetually near tears for about four days now. She also had not left the house. Ty Lee had lost track of how long she'd been sick, but she was sure Suki had not been to the training room in at least a week. Ty Lee wished that death would just come already, so she and Mai and Zuko could all just go back to their lives, so Azula could start to heal. Being alive was like being an open wound.

The next day, the convulsions had started. They left her exhausted, barely able to open her eyes. Suki and Mai took turns talking to her after each seizure ended, their voices guiding her back to reality.

She had not seen Azula in nearly two days.

And then there were the delusions. Mai walking on the ceiling. Suki with the face of a horse. Zuko completely on fire. Azula. The convulsions and the delusions together tormented her for several more days.

She remembers waking up in the middle of the night, her chest on fire, her lips parted in silent screams that she did not have the breath to sustain, tears streaming down her cheeks, as cold and as wet as if she'd just climbed out of the ocean at the South Pole. Surely, surely she was dying. She looked to Azula's bed for help, but it was empty. She was dying alone in the dark. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to picture daylight, tried to imagine the warmth of the sun streaming through the window. She knew she would not live until the next sunrise.

Voices swam in and out of her head. Zuko's and Mai's and Suki's. "…the end…" "…not sure…" "…what else…" "…fever's breaking…"

And then the sun came up. She felt it before she opened her eyes. The sweat that coated her body was beginning to dry, and the sharp pain in her chest had dulled to an ache.

At the end of her bed, Mai was curled up in a chair that had been borrowed from the kitchen. She jerked awake when Ty Lee started coughing.

"Welcome back." She was actually smiling. The kind she usually reserved for Zuko. And her face looked so bright. "Can you breathe okay?"

Ty Lee nodded. "How long… was I out?"

"Not more than six hours." Mai pulled herself out of the chair and moved to sit on the side of the bed. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was disheveled. Even in the forests of the Earth Kingdom, Mai's hair had always been flawless. "But your fever broke. At least that's what we thought was happening. You're not dead, so it looks like we were probably right."

"Where… is everyone?"

"They're all asleep in the living room—well, Zuko's asleep at the kitchen table, I think." She dropped her eyes. "I was supposed to be watching you." Ty Lee can hear guilt in her voice.

"Well, like… like you said… I'm not dead." She paused to catch her breath. "And Azula?"

"Asleep on the couch."

"She's… still here?"

"Yeah." Mai sighed. "She's been having a tough time. She wouldn't come in here when it started looking like you were really going downhill."

Ty Lee frowned. "I noticed."

"She stood outside your door all night," Mai commented, as if that should have fixed things. "I think she wanted to help us."

Ty Lee crossed her arms, and it hurt, but at least she had the energy. "She could have… slept in here."

"Honestly, I think she was afraid she would wake up and find you dead," Mai replied, and Ty Lee had to admit that she had a point.

"I would have… stayed."

Mai placed and hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "You have always been a much better person than Azula."

It had taken her girlfriend half the day to finally visit her. Ty Lee looked over when she heard the door creaking open, and there Azula was. Her face was red and blotchy and the bags under her eyes were even worse than Mai's.

"It took… you long… enough." Ty Lee tried to sound angry, but she couldn't help but smile. "I needed… needed you… Where were you?"

Azula took a hesitant step into the room. And then another. "I couldn't watch you die, Ty Lee."

"I needed you," she repeated.

Azula looked away. She was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, and she was apparently lost for words. When she finally spoke, she whispered. "I am so sorry."

Ty Lee sighed. "Get over here."

Azula approached the bed like a frightened animal and sat down carefully, like she thought it might break, or more likely, like she thought Ty Lee might break.

"Come here," she groaned, reaching for Azula's shoulder and pulling her down to her side. "I was so sure… I'd never… see you again."

Azula's voice was muffled in the pillow. "The feeling was mutual."

Now Ty Lee is outside. It has been a week since her fever broke, Suki went back to work three days ago, Zuko and Mai set off in their airship back to the Fire Nation yesterday, and Ty Lee is standing outside for the first time in eighteen days, so she has been told.

There are three steps between the porch and the ground, and Ty Lee is on the first one catching her breath. She is clutching Azula's shoulder so tightly her knuckles are white.

"Are you ready?" Azula asks, and Ty Lee can tell she is trying not to sound impatient.

"Okay," Ty Lee breaths. She takes a step and she is on the ground. She can feel the dirt on the soles of her feet, the grass in between her toes. Azula is smiling serenely while Ty Lee beams. She reaches forward, buries her hands in Azula's hair, and pulls her forward until their lip touch. She had been too out of breath for kissing until two days ago.

She feels Azula's hands at her shoulders, fidgeting, always so nervous when it comes to things like this. It continually amazes her how a person can effortlessly conquer the Earth Nation and still shy away from a relationship.

Ty Lee steps back and smoothes Azula's hair back into place. "What if someone sees?" Azula asks.

"I don't care," Ty Lee replies. "Life is too short. I don't care anymore." Azula does not look convinced. Ty Lee rolls her eyes. "No one's around anyway."

"How far do you want to go?" Azula asks, turning away from Ty Lee to look down the path.

"Let's go to the training room," Ty Lee answers. She cannot remember the last time she sounded so enthusiastic.

Azula furrows her brow. "Don't you think that's a little far?"

"If I don't make it, you can always carry me back," Ty Lee answers cheerfully.

"I'm not doing that," Azula replies quickly, shaking her head.

"Please?" Ty Lee asks. "It's been so long since I've seen the girls."

Azula raises an eyebrow. "Suki lived with us for two weeks."

Ty Lee sighs. "Suki is not the only one there. Believe it or not, I do have other friends. You would know them if you were a little more sociable." She drops her head to Azula's shoulder. "Please?"

She can see in Azula's expression that she has already won, that the Princess is merely deciding whether to admit defeat. Finally, she heaves a sigh. "Fine."

"Yay!" Ty Lee leans heavily on Azula's arm and they set off at the pace of a snail sloth down the road, occasionally stopping so that she can rest her forehead on her girlfriend's shoulder and wheeze until she catches her breath.

It is another week before Ty Lee goes back to work. Suki is hesitant, determined that she not rejoin the Kyoshi Warriors until she is healthy. Ty Lee argues that she doesn't exactly have to be in peak physical condition to supervise the unloading of a cargo ship.

On the first day, Ty Lee is paired with Suki. They have what Ty Lee has always referred to as a take-a-walk assignment. They are simply to walk the perimeter of the island every other hour to make sure nothing is amiss. Ty Lee suspects that these assignments actually served a purpose during the war, to spot Fire Nation ships in the distance, perhaps, but now the most they ever do is yell at children to get out of the water on the south side of the island, where the Unagi hunts, and pick up liter. It is hardly the place for the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, but Ty Lee suspects Suki placed them here by design.

"How has Azula been handling everything?" Suki asks. They are half way through the day's third trip around the island. For a half an hour they have been walking in comfortable silence, Ty Lee savoring the rough material of her uniform against her skin, the way her fans bump against her hips, the company of her captain, and reminding herself that only two weeks ago, she'd thought she would never do any of this again.

"I think she's glad I'm working again," Ty Lee answers. "She's missed having time alone."

"Doesn't she realize how lucky we all are that you're still… around?" She skirts around the word, alive. Though she will never say anything, Ty Lee knows that Suki has been struggling with her near-death.

"Of course," she replies. "And she's been great… or she's tried to be." She remembers the first time she got out of bed, the day after Suki moved back home. Mai had helped her up, and they had walked once around the living room, Ty Lee's arms tight around Mai's stomach. She remembers Azula's eyebrows drooping in sadness, the corners of her mouth pressed into a frown. When Ty Lee got up that evening, Azula had insisted on being the one to help her, but then when she'd wrapped her arms around Azula's shoulders to support herself, Azula's body had stiffened and she'd hung her head and refused to meet Ty Lee's eyes. It had been a very somber trip around the living room. Azula is not used to taking care of others, and they have not shared a bed again.

"Well, we're all glad to have you back," Suki says.

"Yeah." Ty Lee laughs. "I could tell by the way you practically begged me to take another week off."

Suki holds up her hands. "Well, I had to make sure my second-in-command was back to one hundred percent as soon as possible. If that meant taking more time—"

"I'm not really your second-in-command, you know," Ty Lee points out.

Suki is positively beaming. "You're about to be."

"What?"

"The girls and I discussed it last week," Suki explains, the words tumbling from her mouth like she's been dying to say them all morning. "We're naming you my lieutenant. You'll be the official second-in-command of the Kyoshi Warriors." She is practically bouncing in her step. "The ceremony's next month."

"But…" Ty Lee stutters. "But I didn't even do anything."

"Yes you do," Suki answers, turning and placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Every day. I'm sorry it took you being gone for us to realize it."

"I…" Ty Lee is opening and closing her mouth rapidly, trying to make something come out, but it is becoming rapidly harder to breathe. "I need to sit." She drops unceremoniously onto the sand. Suki kneels down beside her. "I'll be fine," Ty Lee assures her between heavy breaths. "Just got a little… worked up."

"Ty Lee?"

"Yeah?"

Suki's eyes are glistening, but there is a smile on her face. "I'm really glad you didn't die." And then Ty Lee is being wrapped in one of the tightest hugs she thinks she has ever experienced.

"Thanks," she answers, reaching to place a hand on her friend's back. "Me too."

"Are you sure you're well enough for this?"

"I told you, I'm fine."

Ty Lee's mouth travels down Azula's neck, toward her clavicle. Her hands toy with the hem of the Princess' shirt.

"But are you positive?" Her voice shakes. She is concealing panic, Ty Lee realizes, and she pulls her head back. Azula is pressed against the wall, eyes wide, face drained of color.

"Azula, we don't have to do this if you don't want to." She has to admit, she is disappointed. Tonight seemed the perfect occasion. She is healthy enough to be back at work, she has a new perspective on life that makes her much more amenable to taking risks, and she is being promoted. But she will stop. If that is what Azula wants, she will stop.

"I want to," Azula insists, but her expression does not change.

She removes her hands, and lowers her head. "No, you don't. It's okay. We can wait." She backs up and lowers herself to sit on the arm of the couch.

"Ty Lee…" Azula takes a step further.

"It's really okay, Azula."

"No, it's really not." She hears a loud sigh, and then suddenly Azula is kneeling in front of her, taking Ty Lee's wrists in her trembling hands. "It's not that I don't want to." She pauses, and Ty Lee can tell she is still debating what she is going to say next. "I've just never… done this before."

Ty Lee is laughing. "Is that it?" Azula looks shocked. "I haven't either. In case you haven't noticed, there aren't exactly a lot of girls out there who are up for it."

Azula draws her eyebrows together in frustration, her cheeks becoming red. "That's not what I meant." She looks so angry with herself.

"What do you mea—ohh." Her eyes widen. "Really? You haven't? Not even with Lok?"

"Lok kissed me one time," Azula explains, her eyes fixed on the wooden floor. "And we never talked about it again."

"Oh," Ty Lee replies, and at first she is surprised, because if she'd been a Princess, she certainly would have taken advantage of that, but then she remembers Azula's complete haplessness at that party on Ember Island, the twelve-hour training schedule she'd been keeping since they were children, the night she appeared in tears at Ty Lee's window, and it makes more sense. "Well, that's okay. There's a first time for everything."

And then they are in the bedroom, tumbling onto Ty Lee's bed, Azula pressed into the sheets gasping and shuddering as Ty Lee's hands roam her body. They are everywhere—her sternum, her ribcage, her hip bone—all at once. The top of Ty Lee's lip just brushes the wrinkled skin of Azula's scarred shoulder. She runs her fingers over every scar, memorizing them, the ones that look like small, white smudges on her arms and torso from her early days training firebender, the long, thin, purple ones on her back that Ty Lee thinks have nothing at all to do with fire and everything to do with Ozai. She can feel fingers twitching nervously at her waist. Azula's hips roll into hers, and she is sure it is involuntary because, with her eyes squeezed shut and the back of her head straining into the pillow, Azula doesn't look like she is capable of doing much of anything voluntarily right now.

Ty Lee hooks her leg around Azula's calf and flips them, and all Azula does is squeeze at her biceps and look intimidated, so Ty Lee laughs and guides her hands with her own, nuzzling her head into the crook of her girlfriend's neck so she can feel a racing pulse against her cheek.

"Wait," she gasps as her breath begins to quicken and her lungs can't quite keep up.

Azula is propped on her elbows in an instant. "Are you alright?" She sounds about as breathless as Ty Lee feels, and it fills her with an odd sense of pride.

"Yes, just give me a minute." Her breaths are slow and deliberate. Azula is studying her face like one of her old firebending scrolls, and Ty Lee finds that she likes it. Finally the wheezing stops and she is able to catch her breath. "Okay, go ahead."

The moonlight peeks in through the blinds that night, and Ty Lee basks in it, Azula curled once again into her side. Ty Lee wonders if she is also pretending to be asleep. She presses a kiss to Azula's temple, and the Princess murmurs something unintelligible and snuggles into her to. Ty Lee decides she is much too affectionate to be awake.

She brushes a strand of hair behind Azula's ear, and when her companion still does not stir. She leans over so that their foreheads rest against each other and whispers, "I love you."

Just because she is ready to say it does not mean that Azula is ready to hear it.

December, 105 AG

The first time Ursa comes to visit Azula, Zuko gives Ty Lee very little notice. She thinks the letter was probably sent in plenty of time, but mail is still slow to reach Kyoshi Island, and by the time Ty Lee knows she is coming, they have a day and a half to prepare.

Azula had taken the news better than Ty Lee had expected her to. Of course she had lead with, "Zuko and Mai are visiting," and then just happened to mention that "Your mother and half-sister are with them" in passing.

Ty Lee has met Ursa only a handful of times, and her young daughter even fewer. She seems to always look sad, something that Ty Lee thinks she remembers from her limited interaction with Azula's mother in her childhood, and she wonders if Ursa has always been that way. She thinks it is more apparent now than it ever was before though, and she wonders if it is just because Ty Lee is older, or if maybe it has to do with her children now being adults.

"Should we move our beds?" Azula is asking. Zuko's letter had informed them that they would be arriving around noon, and that time is rapidly approaching.

"Why?" Ty Lee asks. "It's not like they're going to be in our bedroom." And even if they are… They had pushed their beds together three weeks ago, no longer wishing to sleep separately and tired of crunching into a bed made for one. After one night of repeatedly getting stuck in the crack between the mattresses, Ty Lee had been ready to simply go out and buy a larger bed, but Azula had begged her not to, "People will get suspicious," and now Azula sleeps in the crack every night.

Part of Ty Lee wonders if Ursa would even care. She will probably be much more preoccupied with the fact that her daughter is actually talking to her and not talking to a hallucination of her father. Ursa had been most concerned every time she'd visited the palace and been greeted with the news that there had been no sighting of Azula, and she'd been even more worried during the three weeks Ty Lee had spent at the palace preparing to take the Princess away.

Zuko and Mai are first off the ship, arm in arm, as always. It has never annoyed Ty Lee before now. She has never been so envious. Never so completely disgusted that they can show off their relationship to the world. Azula's hand is inches from her, and she longs to take it, but she knows that Azula will either pull away or stand there trying to pretend she doesn't notice. Either way, it will get her into trouble later. Ursa steps onto the ramp next, a young girl clutching her hand. Kiyi has grown in the two and a half years since Ty Lee last saw her. Her hair is long now, nearly to her waist, and she no longer carries the doll from which she used to be so inseparable.

Ty Lee runs to hug Mai the moment she steps off the ramp, and Zuko and Azula actually shake hands, prompting Ty Lee to wonder how much sibling bonding she missed while she was on death's doorstep.

"You look well," Zuko comments.

"Oh," Ty Lee replies with a smirk. "I'm very well."

"She still can't run all the drills with the rest of them," Azula informs him smugly, because, for once, she is not the one who is weak.

"Hey," Ty Lee protests. "I almost died, okay?"

That shuts Azula up.

"Hi, Kiyi!" she exclaims when Ursa and her daughter join them on the docks. "Do you remember me? My name's Ty Lee!"

Beside her, Azula is staring at the woman attached to Kiyi's hand. And then, out of nowhere, Ursa lets go and wraps her older daughter in a hug. Azula does not push her away, but she leaves her arms dangling limply at her sides.

Ty Lee is the one to break the silence. "Let's go back to our house," she suggests, taking Kiyi's now vacant hand. "We'll make lunch."

Mai and Ty Lee walk on the beach that afternoon, Kiyi running ahead of them. Mai hadn't seemed altogether enthused when Zuko had suggested that the two of them take his youngest sister to the beach ("I'm not a babysitter" had been her exact words), but she'd realized soon enough what he was trying to do, and here they are.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Ty Lee asks after several minutes of silence. Mai has been staring distractedly at her fiancé's half-sister almost since they left, her eyebrows drawn together in thought.

"Their ruined childhoods probably," she shrugs without taking her eyes off Kiyi. "I understood when Zuko wanted to get closure the first time, but he's gotten closure at least four times now."

"Maybe it's not about Zuko this time," Ty Lee replies slowly.

"Ursa?"

"Or Azula," she answers as Kiyi runs into the waves. "Do you think she knows how to swim?"

"Her village isn't near the ocean," Mai answers, but Ty Lee doesn't put too much stock in that reply, because if there is one thing she learned in the vast forests and deserts of the Earth Kingdom, it is that it's impossible to not be near the ocean in the Fire Nation.

"What did I miss last time you were here?" Ty Lee asks. The question seems sudden, but it has been gnawing at her since she saw Azula shake hands with her brother. She hates feeling out of the loop.

Mai sighs, unfixing her eyes from the young girl for the first time since they set off. "Not much. Mostly the four of us arguing over whether we should try to bathe you and falling asleep in strange places."

"But Zuko and Azula," Ty Lee replies. "They seem so… friendly now."

"I don't know if friendly's the right word," Mai answers. "More like civil." She sighs again, and Ty Lee recognizes it as her about-to-tell-a-long-story sigh. "Azula had a hard time. I mean, you know her, she tried not to let it show, but she was a mess. I think she spent more energy trying not to cry that week than she spent capturing Ba Sing Se." She pauses and holds up a hand against the sun so she can see Kiyi, dragging her feet through the sand as the waves lap at her ankles. "But one morning we woke up and she wasn't there, and, after arguing admittedly a lot more than we should have about who was going to go find her, Zuko went." Mai shrugs. "I don't know where she was or what they talked about, but when they got back four hours later, Zuko had his arm around her shoulders, and he took her into the kitchen and made her some tea. I guess you could say that was the turning point."

"Oh." It is not the answer Ty Lee was expecting, but then, she doesn't know what answer she was expecting.

"I would have killed you if you'd died," Mai adds.

"Aww," she replies. "I feel the same way about you."

She is stopped by an arm on her shoulder, and when she turns around, Mai looks somehow even more serious than usual (she thinks it is in the eyebrows). "I'm serious, Ty Lee," she says in a voice so heavy that Ty Lee thinks it might crush her. "You're my best friend. But don't think you'll ever hear me say that again." She drops her arm and continues walking like she has already forgotten about it. She and Azula can be so very alike sometimes.

She jogs to catch up, and she can barely feel her chest tighten. "Did you know I had a crush on you once?" She is not sure what makes her say it. Maybe so that Mai will not be the only one who has borne her soul.

"No," Mai answers, her eyebrows shooting up past her bangs. "When?"

"When we were ten," Ty Lee replies conversationally. "You were my first crush."

"Wow, I'm honored." She looks out at the water for a moment before turning back to Ty Lee. "You know, I've known Azula was into women for a long time. As secretive as she apparently is about it, it's always been pretty obvious. I mean, what was with all those handmaidens? Even Zuko's wore more clothing, and he was a sixteen-year-old boy. I really don't know what she expected us to think. But, you, I didn't see coming. Not until Suki."

Ty Lee kicks at a shell that is half buried in sand. "Well, I didn't really know either until Suki. I mean, there was you, but I kind of just told myself I was confused and stopped thinking about it."

"Was it difficult?"

Ty Lee shrugs. "I was pretty young. It wasn't that hard to tell myself I was mistaking friendship for romance."

"Oh." Mai hesitates. "Did it hurt?"

"A little."

"Huh," she murmurs, and then, before Ty Lee knows what it happening, Mai is swooping toward her.

And then they are kissing. Mai's lips are dry and rough, and not entirely unpleasant. It is kind. It is much kinder than she imagined a kiss from Mai would feel. But it is strange, and it lasts longer than it probably needs to, and then Mai pulls away with an odd look on her face. Ty Lee bursts out laughing. "What was that for?"

"I just wanted to know what it would feel like," Mai explains with a chuckle.

"And?"

She shrugs. "Honestly, it wasn't one of the better kisses I've had."

"It was kind of awkward."

"I'm glad we're agreed."

Mai starts to walk again, and this time, Ty Lee is only a step behind her. "So you haven't decided to abandon Zuko in favor of lady callers then?"

"I'm afraid not," Mai answers, her eyes scanning the beach once again for their charge. "Not that I could, even if I wanted to." Ty Lee thinks she is referring to what her parents would say. She is very like Zuko in that regard. Even though they have both been free of their fathers for years, they are slaves to approval.

"To bad," Ty Lee replies with another laugh. "Azula and I would have been glad to have you."

"Speak for yourself," Mai comments. "I'm not sure Azula would appreciate you offering her up for threesomes without her knowledge."

"Probably not," Ty Lee agrees. "Especially since she still gets nervous when we—"

Mai slaps her hand over Ty Lee's mouth before she can finish. "I don't need that mental image."

Ty Lee skims the beach for Kiyi, and finally spots her seated in the sand a ways away. "How much longer do you think we need to stay out here?"

Mai groans. "I wish I knew. They have a lot of baggage they need to unpack."

"I just hope we don't find my house burned to the ground," she replies.

"I'd like to think five years as Fire Lord have taught Zuko to control his temper," Mai comments, and Ty Lee remembers that Zuko is the only person in that house capable of producing a substantial flame. It still seems strange to think about Azula without her firebending, even though Ty Lee is willing to bet that being without her bending is the only reason Azula has become so human. She would like to think the Princess is past a point where she could go back, but she is not so sure.

The house is still standing when Ty Lee and Mai return with Kiyi, and they cannot even hear anyone screaming from the porch. Azula slips her arm through Ty Lee's as soon as they are through the front door, and Ty Lee shoots her a questioning look because this goes against everything Azula has been saying for months.

"I told them," she whispers to Ty Lee.

Her mouth drops open. "What? Why?"

Azula looks taken aback. "I thought you would be happy."

"I am," Ty Lee answers quickly, hoping against hope that Azula did not make this decision just to please her (though she realizes that sounds very unlike Azula). "I just didn't think it was what you wanted."

"I want this." She gestures between them. "And they were going to find out eventually." Ty Lee accepts it, even though it is not really an answer. "Zuko is buying us a bed."

"What?" she gasps. "He doesn't have to do that. We can afford a bed. You just won't let me buy one."

"I know." Azula answers. "But he'll buy it. It will look like it's for him. For his ship or something."

Ty Lee raises an eyebrow. "You don't think people will figure it out when they see us moving it into the house?"

"People know better than to spy on me," Azula answers as if it should be obvious. Ty Lee doubts this very much, because watching Azula when she doesn't know she is being watched is about the most entertaining thing to do on Kyoshi Island.

In the kitchen, Mai has taken the seat beside Zuko, which Azula must have pulled in from the living room. Kiyi is already seated on her mother's lap. Zuko beams up at Ty Lee when they enter. Of course, Zuko already knew, she reminds herself. Ursa looks at her in a way Ty Lee has never been looked at before. A mixture of concentration and concern and awe. And then, slowly, she smiles too.

She lifts Kiyi out of her lap, rises from her chair, and pulls Ty Lee into a tight hug that she thinks should be awkward but isn't at all. "Thank you for bringing my daughter back to us," she whispers so that no one else can hear.

Ty Lee remembers how Ursa was during the three weeks she spent at the palace the previous year, when Azula was only a stuttering shell of herself. They hadn't spent much time together, but when Ty Lee had seen Ursa, she'd been despairing, consumed with guilt. Ty Lee had been positive she would have taken even the power-crazed ultra-perfectionist her daughter had been during the war over the trembling shadow at the foot of the bed. All the same, she'd relocated temporarily to the palace to handle Azula's care personally. At the time, Ty Lee had wondered if it was out of some sense of penance. Now she realizes that it was only ever because Ursa loves her oldest daughter. Just as she loves her other children.

Ty Lee can hardly take all the credit, because she is pretty sure that being away from the palace is what really brought Azula back, more than anything she did.

"What juicy details did I miss?" Mai asks, lounging back in the chair. Ty Lee leans back against the counter. Azula's arm is still folded around her bicep rather possessively, and Ty Lee cannot help but wonder if there is something she is trying to prove.

Ty Lee lays at a diagonal in their bed that night, simply because she can. There is no crack for her arms and legs to get stuck in, the last boundary between them gone. She rests her head on Azula's chest and plays with the hem of her shirt. She can feel a hand tangled in her hair, one finger absently tapping the back of her head.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Who says I'm thinking about anything?" Azula's voice is defensive, and Ty Lee knows that, as always with Azula, she has bitten off more than she maybe wants to chew right now.

"Your finger is about to bore a hole in my skull."

Azula sighs and her hands stills, and, for a moment, Ty Lee really thinks she might not answer. "If I was the Fire Lord, she would be dead."

Ty Lee turns her head so she can see Azula's face. "Who?"

"My mother," Azula answers flatly. "Who else?"

She draws her eyebrows together. "Why would she be dead?"

"I would have had her hunted down and killed the moment I ascended to the throne." Azula is staring straight up at the ceiling. Ty Lee says nothing, and finally, Azula continues. "That's why my fire's gone. Because I found out my mother loved me."

"You didn't know that?"

Azula shakes her head. "She always seemed to love Zuko so much more. After she left, I asked my father, and he agreed."

"Of course he did," Ty Lee whispers, her eyes wide. "To control you."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" Azula snaps. "I was only eight." She sighs again. The hand that it not buried in Ty Lee's hair reaches up to rub at her eyes. "The most powerful firebender in the world, and all that strength was based on a lie."

"I'm surprised you have a problem with that," Ty Lee admits, twirling the hem of the shirt around her finger. Her nails brush her girlfriend's stomach and she can feel her shiver.

"I spent years thinking that no one would ever love me."

It is the most surprising thing Ty Lee has ever heard Azula say. What's more surprising than Azula admitting to it is the fact that she ever cared. The Azula that Ty Lee knew at fourteen never seemed to notice that she was unpopular, and she was always perfectly content to rule through fear and manipulation.

"You were easier to play that way," Ty Lee points out, even though she is not sure if she should. "His approval was so important to you because you thought you had no one else."

"And I was content with his generosity because I thought real love was something I would never have." Her voice is bitter and Ty Lee can sense that there is rage present, barely held at bay.

She plucks Azula's hand off her face and brings her palm to her lips. Azula's smile is barely a flicker.

"Do you think my brother always cared about me?" she asks, and Ty Lee marvels at how talkative she is tonight. "Or do you think he started when he realized I was sick?"

"I don't know, Azula," she replies. "Mai and I always cared about you."

The Princess' eyes roll towards her. "Then why did you turn on me?"

"Mai turned on you because you were about to kill Zuko, and I turned on you because you were about to kill her," Ty Lee explains. "And I'm sorry about what it did to you, but I don't regret my decision, and neither does she."

"So you just cared about her more than me?" She sounds angry and offended, but her voice is laced with an insecurity that prevents Ty Lee from returning those emotions.

She rolls her eyes. "Stop making this into a contest. I didn't have to care about Mai more than you to value her life more than your friendship."

"So you did care about me more."

"Ughhh! I cared about you both the same!" She turns her head away again.

"Do you know what happened after the agni kai?"

Ty Lee is surprised that Azula is letting the previous subject drop. She has never known her to accept a tie. Azula always wins when she can help it. "What do you mean?"

She remembers the aftermath Ozai's defeat clearly. There were two very confusing days, during which no one was quite sure who the Fire Lord was. Guesses had ranged from Zuko to Azula to Ozai to Katara to Aang. Zuko and Aang had spent hours at a time holed up in the expansive royal library looking up whether a coronation stands if it is interrupted and the exact rules of an agni kai. Finally the Fire Sages had stepped in and determined that Azula had been the Fire Lord prior to the agni kai, even though the crown had never touched her head, that Katara's participation was fair because Azula had engaged her in combat first, and that, much to her dismay, she was the one who had rightfully won the crown, having dealt the final blow. And, after much stealthy political maneuvering, which had only been complicated by the fact that all of the known ways to abdicate the throne had involved the loss of an agni kai or the symbolic passing on of one's fire, and Katara was not firebender, Zuko had been crowned Fire Lord.

Then, there had been a demand from the Earth King to send Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee to the Earth Kingdom in chains to stand trial. Ty Lee knows that Zuko got Azula out of it because of a combination of her mental illness and age, but Mai and Ty Lee had both been a year older and entirely healthy, and even though their crimes had been slightly less severe, Ty Lee is still not sure what diplomatic strings Zuko had pulled to save them. But somehow, she doesn't think Azula is referring to either of those things.

"I was chained to that grate for five hours," she replies. "While they waited for the Avatar. Zuko wouldn't leave my side. It was very annoying. I only wanted to have my mental breakdown in solitude."

If she is being honest, Ty Lee does not have a lot of sympathy, as she an Mai had still been scrubbing floors at the Boiling Rock five hours after the war ended, so she just answers, "Oh."

"And then the Avatar did show up, and that water peasant suggested that he take my bending away." She sounds outraged. "But my dear brother wouldn't let him. I'll make sure she'd not a threat." She heaves a loud groan in annoyance and rolls over without warning, knocking Ty Lee off of her.

"But, Azula," she sits up and rubs her head, "That was almost six years ago. None of us are the same person we were back then."

"I know," Azula mutters as Ty Lee settles herself against her back. "But that doesn't make it any less humiliating." She is silent for a long time, and Ty Lee thinks she has fallen asleep, but then she mutters, more to herself than anything, "I suppose it's good she's not dead."

Ty Lee thinks it must be a twist of fate that on one of the rare mornings that she rises before Azula, Ursa knocks on her front door early and unexpectedly.

"Azula's still asleep," Ty Lee explains as she steps aside so the woman can enter.

"That's alright," Ursa replies. "I would love to speak with you. Unless you'd rather I go," she adds quickly.

"Of course not," Ty Lee answers, surprised. "I was just about to make myself something to eat."

And that is how she ends up sitting across from Azula's mother eating a fruit salad. Ursa is silent for a long time, first studying Ty Lee and then staring absently out the window. "The weather to beautiful this weekend," Ty Lee says in an attempt to break the awkward silence that has engulfed them. "You picked a good time to come."

"It is," Ursa agrees quietly. "No wonder Azula likes it here."

"She does?" Ty Lee asks in surprise, because even though she knows Azula prefers Kyoshi Island to the palace, that is not exactly saying much.

Ursa nods. "Though, I don't think the weather is the only reason." She returns her gaze to Ty Lee. "How is she really?"

Ty Lee sighs. "She struggles. She's angry sometimes and scared sometimes. I mean, she never tells me that. You know how she is—or maybe you don't—but she tries. That's the important thing."

Ursa smiles, but it does not make her look any less sad. "I want to you know that, whatever you may hear, I have always loved both of my children. I have never loved one more than the other. I may have paid more attention to Zuko when they were children, but it was out of a sincere belief that he needed me more, because his father liked him less." She furrows her brow, her expression laced guilt, and it strikes Ty Lee just how much Azula resembles her mother. "I see now that I was mistaken. That was the exact reason why it was the other way around."

"Ozai made her believe that she was completely unloved," she tells her, even though perhaps she shouldn't. It is nice to have someone to talk about Azula with who is so amenable to the idea.

"I should have taken them with me," Ursa replies fiercely. "I wanted to. I wanted to take both of them, but he threatened me, and I was sure I wouldn't make it out of the capitol with them."

"I don't think you can blame yourself for that," Ty Lee answers. "Ozai would have had you killed."

Ursa shakes her head. "I should have tried. If I'd known what he was going to do to them, I would have." She turns back to the window. "I remember the first time I met you."

"Really?" Ty Lee gasps. It had been so long ago, and she'd been able to tell, even at eight years old, that Ursa had other things on her mind.

She nods. "I liked you. I thought you'd be a good influence on her." A ghost of a smile. "Mai, I wasn't so sure about." Ty Lee laughs and finds that she isn't at all surprised. "I remember when Azula was born," Ursa adds, turning back to the window. "I used to picture us sitting in the garden, having a cup of tea and talking about someone she'd met, talking about love. How I looked forward to that day." She sighs. "And then she got older and more rambunctious and I told myself, it's okay, we can still have that talk. Mischievous girls still fall in love. And then she started firebending, and as she spent more and more time being trained by her father, I watched that mischievous little girl start to disappear." Ursa shakes her head. "She… wasn't a weapon yet, but I could see her heading in that direction and I thought, we will never have that conversation. My daughter will never live enough to fall in love." Ty Lee thinks she might be near tears now, but she continues talking. "By the time I regained my memories, Azula was already gone, and when she returned she was… not herself, not any version of herself, the girl or the weapon. I had completely given up." She turns back to Ty Lee, and although her cheeks are damp, she looks the happiest Ty Lee has ever seen her. "My daughter and I had that talk yesterday. Of course, I always imagined it would be some noble boy she met a court…" She trails off, drops her eyes for just a moment before, once again, meeting Ty Lee's. "But I'm glad she has you. I just wish it didn't make both your lives so complicated."

Ty Lee remembers watching Zuko and Mai disembark, remembers the anger. "I just wish I could hold her hand."

"She is still very much her father's daughter," Ursa comments sadly. "She fought just has hard as Zuko did for his approval. I am sure she was supposed to make a diplomatic marriage." To a man. The implication hangs in the air. "Some habits die hard."

Ty Lee's eyebrows shoot up. "So the reason she doesn't want anyone to know is because Ozai would disapprove?"

"I will not pretend to know Azula as well as a mother should know her daughter," Ursa answers. "But that is my guess."

Zuko and Mai arrive later than expected with Kiyi in tow. They both look completely exhausted and even grimmer than usual, and Ty Lee takes one look at them and ushers them into the kitchen glaring at Azula until she surrenders her chair.

When Zuko and Mai both have cups of tea in front of them, Zuko speaks up. "We, umm… we have a bit of an announcement."

"You've decided to abdicate the throne," Azula guesses, triumph apparent in her voice. He narrows his eyes at her.

"This might not be the best way to tell you." He is rubbing the back of his neck. Beside him, Mai stares at the floor. "But things are going to start moving quickly when we return to the capital, and we want you all to be the first to know."

"The suspense is killing me," his sister drawls, rolling her eyes. "Do away with the speeches and spit it out already."

"I'm pregnant," Mai murmurs barely loud enough for Ty Lee to hear. Ursa's hand flies to her mouth. Ty Lee gasps. Azula freezes, her lips parted. Zuko's face goes very red.

Ursa is the first to recover. "How far along?"

"About two months," Mai answers, inspecting her fingernails and obviously trying to look casual. So very much like Azula.

"Why is this the first we're hearing about this?" Ty Lee demands, mildly offended, hands planted on her hips.

"I just told Zuko last night," Mai explains. "I was… hoping I was wrong."

"You don't want it?" Azula demands sharply.

"I mean, it's a little early," Mai replies.

Ursa studies her son for a moment. "So, you'll be planning a wedding." It is a statement, not a question.

Zuko nods. "I don't see that we have much of a choice." Ty Lee cannot imagine the disaster that would ensue from the Crown Prince or Princess being born out of wedlock. If it has ever happened before, it did not make it to the history books. Ty Lee does not even know what the procedure would be, whether Zuko would even be allowed to claim the child as his own, let alone, whether it would be able to inherit. She doubts that Zuko knows either.

"I never saw us getting married," Mai confides in her that evening. They are along the beach again. Azula and Zuko are walking an arm's-length away from each other up ahead.. "I don't know why. I love him. We just never talked about ever getting married."

"If he wasn't the Fire Lord, no one would even know," Ty Lee points out.

Mai lifts her head, eyes meeting Zuko and Azula's backs. "If she wasn't the Fire Lord's sister, no one would care."

February, 106 AG

It is cold on the ship. Kyoshi Island is beautiful, but Ty Lee often forgets how close to the South Pole it is. They will be entering Fire Nation waters today, and then it will be warmer, but until then, the silk dress that she has been looking for an occasion to wear since just after the end of the war is not thick enough. Azula is much warmer in her armor.

Zuko had requested that Azula wear a dress, and Ty Lee understands his reasoning. There will be spectators from the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes present, and the image of Azula in armor is sure to stir memories of the war that devastated their nations, only five and a half years gone. Ty Lee had mentioned buying a dress to Azula, watched her eyes flit down to her scarred shoulder, and promptly dropped the idea, and so Azula's armor had arrived on the island two weeks before they were due to set out.

She can remember the first time she ever saw Azula in armor. Azula had been twelve, and Ty Lee, thirteen. At the time, it had escaped Ty Lee why the Fire Lord would want to outfit his only remaining heir with battle armor, but that was before she'd realized that he'd seen his children as disposable. The armor had looked bulky and cumbersome at the time, but she'd grown into it over the next year, in both body and mind, so that when Ty Lee saw her in it again, nearly a year and a half later, it had been like some natural extension of her body.

That night, Azula had shown up at the window of the bedroom she'd shared with her sister, and Ty Lee hadn't been able to let her in, so they'd climbed up onto the roof. Azula had been wearing only a robe, and Ty Lee had been able to see deep bruises blossoming across her chest like fingerprints. She hadn't asked about them. She'd simply lain her hand on Azula's back while she cried. Hours later, when the Princess had finally clambered to her feet and was scaling the roof back toward the palace, Ty Lee had thought she'd seen streaks of dried blood staining the insides of her friend's legs, but it may have been a trick of the light.

Azula does not fill it out as well as she used to. She is not a muscular as she once was, and it doesn't look quite right without the regal topknot that had once been her signature hairstyle, but that she seemed to have abandoned during her time in the Earth Kingdom. Ty Lee had never quite noticed how haunted her face looks until now.

Suki, who was also invited to the wedding, much to her surprise (but not to Ty Lee's), had stiffened the moment she'd seen Azula donning the armor in one of the corridors that morning. She'd gone back into her room and had not answered her door for nearly an hour. When she had, her face was red and blotchy, but she was smiling, and she'd waved at Azula, who was lurking several feet behind Ty Lee looking very much like she'd rather be elsewhere.

Around midday, they can start to make out the Gates of Azulon in the distance, and she notices that Azula is gripping the railing so tightly her knuckles are turning white. She settles her hand on top of Azula's and pries her fingers open, laces her own fingers between them. She realizes that this is the first time Azula has been back to the palace since Ty Lee collected her a year and a half ago. "It'll be okay," she whispers, but she is not sure that Azula hears her. She is so worked up that the fact that Ty Lee is holding her hand in plain sight of the crew escapes her notice.

Ty Lee understands the gravity of war's impact when she looks at Azula and Suki.

Azula is not in the wedding. It is a decision Mai and Zuko both struggled with, and, as Zuko once confided, one of the hardest he has ever had to make, but she is wearing battle armor and is still a little unpredictable, and ultimately, he cannot have her standing up there with him like he is condoning what she has done. Not when half of his guests are from the Earth and Water Nations. "I might as well invite assassination attempts," he'd told her.

Ty Lee is in the wedding, however. Azula comes to her room the morning of the ceremony—they are not sharing because of what the other guests might think—and Ty Lee winds her arms around her neck, kisses her until she finally feels Azula's hands slide to the small of her back (always so nervous), and tells her they need to go or they'll be late. They walk together to the suite of rooms that have been set aside for the bride to prepare. Mai emerges, hugs Azula, and ushers Ty Lee inside. She parts from Azula with a quick squeeze of the hand and a promise that they will see each other right after the ceremony. Right after.

Mai's robes are long and intricate, covered in crimson and gold and lined with small, black gems that Ty Lee thinks were probably mined from the Earth Kingdom when the Fire Nation still had colonies there, not that she will say anything. Ty Lee did not realize her hair had gotten so long, but now that it's down, it brushes her waist. Mai is forgoing her usual three-bun style for something more ceremonial, but after angrily twisting the same uncooperative strand of hair four times, she allows Ty Lee to take over, looping the twists through each other and pinning them so that they look like delicate, black flowers, all in a line drawing the eye to the topknot on which the Fire Lady's crown will soon be perched. The first Fire Lady in fifteen years.

"Your first regal topknot," Ty Lee sighs. "I can't believe you're going to be a queen."

Mai sighs and drops her head into her hands. "I'm getting married."

"I know!" Ty Lee squeals. "Isn't it exciting?"

"Uh huh."

"Oh, come on, Mai," Ty Lee protests, coming around to the front of the chair and kneeling beside her friend. "You guys are practically married already. And you've been affianced for, what? Three years?"

"Easy for you to say," Mai grumbles. "You never have to get married." Ty Lee's face falls, and Mai covers the hand resting on her shoulder with her own.

Ty Lee shakes her head and stands back up. "It's fine. Are you ready? I think we have to go soon."

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." She almost sounds bored.

The halls of the palace are empty, filled with an eerie stillness that makes Ty Lee's hair stand on end. They walk in silence and there is an odd heaviness about it, like they are walking to the gallows. She can almost feel Mai's stomach churning.

"Mai, do you love Zuko?"

"What?" She turns her head so suddenly that her topknot slips to the side, and they have to stop so Ty Lee can re-pin it.

"Do you love him?"

"Of course I do," Mai replies. There is a ferocity behind her voice, and Ty Lee knows she can only be telling the truth. She reaches out and takes her friend's hand. She is surprised to find that it is shaking.

"Then what are you so worried about?"

Mai sighs and studies the tile for a moment. "I'm going to be a mother in five months."

Ty Lee crosses her arms and knits her brows together. "What's wrong with that?"

"I'm only twenty."

"You'll be twenty-one in a month," Ty Lee argues.

Mai groans, pressing her fingers to her temple. "Forgive me. That makes a huge difference."

"You're going to be great at it," Ty Lee assures her, smiling gently and resting a hand on her best friend's shoulder. "And even if you're not, there will be nannies, and you know Zuko was practically born to be a father."

"I don't want my child to be raised by nannies," Mai replies.

"We were both raised by nannies," Ty Lee points out.

"My point exactly."

And they are laughing. The heaviness is gone. For a brief moment, Ty Lee feels like they are back in the Earth Kingdom, trying to paint their faces as Kyoshi Warriors for the first time or unpacking their bags at that musty cottage on Ember Island. She pulls her friend into a hug, and when she lets go, Mai is actually smiling.

"Now," Ty Lee says, straightening Mai's robe and giving the flowers in her hair a final readjustment. "Let's go get married."

The reception takes place in the courtyard, and it is spectacular. Darkness has fallen, and they can see all of Capital City up in lights. Lanterns hang from wires that must have taken days to install, but the Fire Lord's wedding is the biggest cause of national celebration since Prince Lu Ten's birth, more than thirty years ago.

Ty Lee finds Azula off to the side, leaning against a pillar and watching Zuko shake hands with Sokka and Suki.

"Isn't it magical?" she sighs.

"I suppose," Azula concedes. "If you're into fairytales."

But Ty Lee is unswayed. "I am."

"They're children's stories."

"I love children." She spins around, and her dress fans out around her.

Azula presses a hand to her mouth, and Ty Lee suspects she is concealing a laugh. "You are a child."

Ty Lee laughs, and it rings her ears. "Do you want to dance?"

"What?"

"Do you want to dance?" She stops spinning so she can see Azula clearly.

"No." Azula's answer is firm, and Ty Lee knows there is no point in arguing with her.

"Oh, okay." She sighs and looks out at the celebration. "Well, I'm going to go rescue Mai from the Earth King. I'll see you later."

Ty Lee understands. She really does. At their age, dancing together only means one thing. They would essentially be declaring their relationship to the world. Ty Lee knows Azula does not want that. Maybe she will never want that. But Ty Lee had hoped.

By the time Ty Lee has been questioned about life on Kyoshi Island, how Azula is doing, and whether she brought a date by Katara and Sokka and Aang separately, guests have stopped filtering in. On his chair at the top of the steps on which Azula was crowned Fire Lord, Zuko stands, signaling to the band and cutting off the elaborate waltz mid-measure. Beside him, Mai also rises, and, arm in arm (always arm in arm), they proceed down the stairs and to the middle of the courtyard for the Fire Lord's dance.

Weddings had been one of the only occasions during which dancing was allowed during Azulon and Ozai's tenures as monarchs, and even then, it was strictly regimented. The Fire Lord and Fire Lady were to dance by themselves through the first tempo change, and then others were allowed to join them. But Zuko is not Azulon, and he is certainly not Ozai. Aang and Katara join them almost immediately (something Ty Lee suspects might have been planned). Both couples are excellent dancers, which Ty Lee knows is only because of the lessons, because, despite her coordination in combat, Mai has never been able to step in time to save her life. Ty Lee had tried to teach her to dance back in the Earth Kingdom one night, when Azula had gone off to practice her forms for the thousandth time and left to their own devices. Mai and Zuko move stiffly, uncomfortably, their foreheads creased in concentration, trying not to miss any steps. Aang and Katara move much more gracefully, like they took lessons before their wedding and have not stopped dancing since. They move like they are on a cloud, like they are made of water. Zuko and Mai move more like machines. Ty Lee does not think that they really feel the music. Perhaps dancing just does not come as naturally to citizens of the Fire Nation.

Ursa and her husband wait for the customary tempo change before joining them. Ursa is a much more skilled dancer than either her husband, son, or daughter-in-law, and this takes Ty Lee by surprise until she remembers that Ursa was married to Ozai for fifteen years and would have had to learned. Then Sokka and Suki join, absolutely brimming with enthusiasm. Ty Lee doubts that either of them have ever danced formally before in their lives, and they are missing every step, but they do not seem to care or even notice. They have wide grins pasted on their faces as if they are just happy not to have stepped on anyone else's toes. Ty Lee notices Aang and Katara struggling to give them a wide birth without being too conspicuous about it. Then Toph pulls a lanky boy in Water Tribe blue who looks like he is having trouble deciding between being terrified and being unable to believe his luck out onto the floor. Then Mai's mother leads a young boy who has the peaked look of having just grown several inches into the courtyard, and Ty Lee realizes that it is Tom-Tom. Zuko and Mai have retreated to the bottom of the steps, more content to simply to watch. Nearly everyone is dancing now and their presence is not missed.

"Ty Lee."

Azula is standing in the shadow of a nearby pillar. She turns and begins to walk along the path, and Ty Lee knows that she is expected to follow.

"Where are we going, Azula?"

"Don't worry. You'll like it," she calls over her shoulder as her feet clank over the grate where she was chained for five hours on that summer night more than five years ago. She pushes open a tall glass door, barely noticeable among the floor-length windows, and steps inside.

They are in a ballroom that Ty Lee has never seen before, though she has never had any occasion to. "Azula, what are we doing?"

The Princess grasps her hand and pulls her toward the middle of the room, away from the windows. "Dancing."

"But I can barely hear the music."

"Only because you won't stop talking."

So Ty Lee obediently settles her free hand on Azula's shoulder and waits for Azula to slip her own hand to her waist.. Ty Lee had never expected Azula to be a good dancer, so she is not disappointed. If Ursa and Zuko had not been banished, she probably would have taken dance lessons, but as if were, she spent her adolescence at war and then in an asylum, so Ty Lee leads them through the steps as best she can. They may not be in the courtyard, but the light from the lanterns shines through the glass and reflects off the chandeliers, casting the ballroom in just as many beautiful colors.

"Why anyone thinks this is fun escapes me," Azula mutters after the third time Ty Lee accidentally steps on her foot.

She shrugs, her shoulder catching on Azula's heavy shoulder plate. "You just have to get the hang of it."

It feels strange, having all of this armor between them. Ty Lee hadn't thought twice about it during the war, but now that she has wrapped her arms around Azula's body, now that she knows how small she truly is, it feels cold and unnatural. They will dance when they return home, she decides, even if she has to hum the music herself, so that Azula will know what it should really feel like.

"You want to go back out there, don't you?" her girlfriend asks after the third song. Ty Lee had not notices she was staring out the windows.

"What?"

"You want to go back to the party." It is an accusation, but Azula does not sound angry. Only resigned.

She pulls back to look the Princess in the eye. "I want to dance with you." It is an honest answer, but it is an evasion, and they both know it.

"But not here."

Ty Lee sighs, and Azula drops her arms. "I know you don't want people to know," she replies, struggling to keep the frustration out of her voice. "I just wish we could dance with everyone else."

"Why don't you care?" She expects Azula to be irritated at the very least, but she only sounds curious.

"I did," Ty Lee admits. "And then I thought I was going to die, and I regretted all of the things that we didn't do because we were trying to keep a secret."

"They would never respect us if they knew."

"Then I don't need their respect," she answers fiercely. "I love you, and I want everyone to know that."

Azula stares blankly at her, and as soon as Ty Lee realizes what she has said, her mouth drops open. "I… I…"

"Didn't mean it," Azula supplies, and she does not even sound disappointed.

Ty Lee shakes her head. "I meant it. I just didn't mean to say it."

Azula turns and walks back toward the doors. "I don't believe you."

March, 106 AG

The ten year anniversary of Suki's induction into the Kyoshi Warriors comes at the end of the worst month Ty Lee thinks her relationship with Azula has ever experienced, save for the month Azula had her and Mai thrown in prison. They still share their bed, they still eat breakfast at the same table every morning, but their breakfasts are quiet and they sleep with so much space between them that they are practically alone. Ty Lee feels lonelier sharing this bed with Azula than she did when she lived by herself.

"I'm not going," Azula tells her flat out when Ty Lee mentions that the Warriors are throwing Suki a party, and Ty Lee know from the tone of her voice that there will be no negotiation, but she will not stay home and join Azula in wallowing in her misery. She does that enough already.

The first thing Suki asks her when she arrives is, "Where's Azula?" Suki knows, of course, about their recent problems, but Ty Lee has not left Azula to go anywhere except for the training house since she arrived on the island.

"She's not here," Ty Lee shrugs, pretending girlfriend's absence bothers her less than it does. "She didn't want to come."

"Oh," Suki answers, clearly surprised. "I'm sorry to hear that." Ty Lee knows that Suki is not sorry at all that she will not have to deal with Azula tonight. The apology is for the relationship. The fact that it has been a month and they still act more like roommates than lovers. Ty Lee wishes she'd just agreed with Azula, let her believe she did not really love her. It would have been better than what they have now.

"Congratulations!" She has to yell as they enter the house. Ty Lee's living room is crowded when Mai and Zuko visit. There are at least fifteen people crammed into Suki's. Yani telling a story that involves animated hand gestures to the newest group of recruits, Min nibbling on a banana and eyeing a boy who is leaning casually against the opposite wall. She wanders the room and finds that she knows everyone here, but does not particularly want to talk to any of them. The other Warriors will inevitably ask here where Azula is—they do not know about the relationship, but they are now well accustomed to her trailing Ty Lee wherever she goes—and she does not think that she can deal with their looks of relief when she tells them that Azula decided to sit this one out. The corner that the Princess usually haunts during parties is occupied by Kiko and her newest boy from the village. Ty Lee doe s not want to see it. She pushes through the crowd and lets herself through the door that she knows leads to the bedroom and sinks into the bed. Breathe.

She drops her head into her hands and thinks. She considers going home, but she does not want to admit defeat. She is debating the pros and cons of waiting out the party in the darkness of Suki's bedroom when the door creaks open.

"Ty Lee?"

"Suki!" she squeals. "I was just… umm…" She begins to smooth out the blanket, completely unsure of where exactly she is trying to go with this.

"Making my bed?" Suki raises an eyebrow. "During a party? I appreciate your, umm… generosity, but I'm pretty sure it was already made."

"Oh," Ty Lee replies feebly. "Well, it was dark." She does not even try to frame the lie as a truth.

"I see." The door closes and Ty Lee feels the bed sink down beside her. "You want to tell me about it?"

"I don't know what to do," Ty Lee groans as an arm slips around her shoulders. "I don't know what happened to us." She allows herself to lean into her friend, to accept the comfort that she is offering.

"Things like this happen sometimes in relationship," Suki assures her. "Sokka and I fight all the time. You guys will get through it. You just need to talk to each other. That's always been your biggest problem."

Ty Lee shakes her head. "My life would be so much easier if I was dating you."

Suki laughs. "Yeah, I guess it might."

"I'm serious," Ty Lee looks up at her in the darkness. "I loved you for the longest time. I wish I was dating you."

Suki is silent for a long time. "Is that what you meant when you told me you'd finally found someone who liked you back?"

Ty Lee is surprised that Suki even remembers the words she'd used when she'd first told her of the relationship, after their first fight. Minor compared to this one. "Yes."

Suki sighs. "I'm sorry if that was painful for you—"

And then, before Ty Lee knows what she is doing, her hands are on either side of Suki's head, pulling her down. Their lips meet, and at first, Suki is as still as the statue of Kyoshi, and then she is angling her head, molding her lips to match Ty Lee's. It is like a whirlwind, and Ty Lee feels as if she can't breathe. Her hands are roaming over Suki's back, down her sides, playing with the hem of her shirt. Then suddenly, Suki is pinned to the bed and Ty Lee's fingers are on skin, soft and warm and alive. She can feel the edge of her friend's chest bindings, searches for the end of the cloth, finds it—

There is pressure on Ty Lee's chest, pushing her back. "What are we doing, Ty?" Suki sounds surprised and confused and breathless.

Reality snaps back into place in a second, and Ty Lee is scurrying off of Suki, knowing she cannot take back what she has just done. "I…"

"I'm not… I don't…" Suki is sputtering, and then she takes a breath and tries again. "You love Azula. Remember Azula? And I love Sokka. Oh no, Sokka." The bed creaks as she stands, and through the darkness, Ty Lee can see her begin to pace, fingers to her temples.

"I'm sorry," Ty Lee squeaks, clamping her hand over her mouth. "I'll just… I'll just go home."

"No," Suki sighs. "You don't have to. Just… use the room as long as you need to, okay?" And she escapes back to the party without another word.

Ty Lee is still there when Suki returns at the end of the night, lying on her back and trying to think. One corner of Suki's mouth turns up in a half smile. "How are you doing?" Ty Lee groans in response, and her friend sighs. "Look, if you don't want to go back home tonight… you can stay here."

"Really?"

"Of course." Suki replies. "And, about what happened… I'm too tired to think about it right now, so just don't worry about it, okay?"

Ty Lee nods and scoots over so that Suki and climb into the bed beside her. They face opposite directions, but the mattress is narrow and their spines press against each other. They can ignore it, Ty Lee decides as she feels her friend's breaths slow against her back, even though it became obvious the moment Suki kissed her back.

The kiss meant something.

The first thing Ty Lee notices when she enters the house she and Azula share the next morning is the overturned chair laying several feet from its previous location. There is a dent in the wall right beside the door that it much too big to be from a fist.

"Azula?" she calls. "Azula, where are you?"

She leans closer to the dent. There are specks of something dark spattered on the paint, and she realizes with a jolt that it is blood.

"Azula?"

She throws open the bedroom door, but it is empty, the bed untouched. She turns and flies through the kitchen doorway and nearly collides with the table. Azula is crumpled against the wall at the far end of the counter, legs outstretched in front of her. She can see the blood even from here. It is everywhere.

"Azula!"

She crosses the kitchen in two hurried steps and kneels in front of the Princess. Azula's eyelids flutter, and relief floods through Ty Lee's body, simply because she is alive. The skin of Azula's knuckles is shredded and bloody, blood trickles slowly from a wound on her forehead. There are several cuts on her left forearm that look deep, and Ty Lee is unsure of what they came from until she sees the vegetable knife lying several feet away.

"Azula, what did you do?" she cries, hugging her girlfriend's head to her chest. She can feel blood leaking onto her dress, but that is the least of her concerns. There is always another dress, after all.

"What he told me to," Azula mumbles against her chest.

Ty Lee holds her bleeding forearm up to inspect it. "What who told you to?"

"My father."

"Azula, how long has your father been talking to you?" she asks.

"Since the wedding." Azula moans. "He won't go away."

"Why did you tell me?" She holds Azula's head away from her to take a look at the wound on her forehead. Azula shrugs weakly.

"None of this looks too bad," Ty Lee informs her. "Stay right here. I'm going to get some supplies to clean you up."

So she wipes the blood from Azula's body and bandages her arm and hand and head, and by the time she is finished, Azula is much more alert.

"Can you stand?"

"Yes." She grips the counter and wobbles a little on the way up, but then she is upright. Ty Lee leads her to the couch, settles in beside her, and nestles Azula's head into her lap, careful to mind the bandages.

"I don't think you should go to sleep for a while," she explains as she absently runs her fingers through her girlfriend's hair, brushing it away from her face. "Just in case. So I want you to keep talking to me." She feels a nod against her legs. "Okay, I need you to tell me what your father has been saying to you."

"The same thing he always does." She sighs. "He said you were lying. He said you would never love me." Her voice is tired and emotionless, and Ty Lee imagines she must be completely drained. "He told me if you really loved me, you wouldn't have left me to go to that party. He wouldn't stop saying it."

She remembers her kiss with Suki and she feels so dirty. She takes a deep breath, swallowing the tears that threaten her eyes. "Azula, what were you doing with that knife? Were you… were you trying to k-kill yourself?"

She shakes her head feebly. "I just wanted him out."

Ty Lee leans over so that her lips are nearly touching Azula's ear. "You know that nothing he said was true, right?"

Azula nods. "He was just trying to control me again. And I let him."

"Is this why you've barely spoken to me since the wedding?"

"He kept telling me you didn't love me. You only pitied me," she explains. "I don't want your pity."

"Azula," she chokes, tears spilling out of her eyes. "I do love you. I love you so much."

"I know," Azula answers softly, gripping Ty Lee's forearm and squeezing.

She feels so dirty.

She finally puts Azula to bed in the early evening and sets off cleaning up the kitchen. The blood is everywhere. Drips on the counters, handprints on the cabinets, a pool on the floor where Azula had apparently tried to cut her father's voice out of her body. Tears mingle with the blood as she works. In the washroom, the mirror is gone, as Ty Lee suspected, so she simply sweeps the shards of glass off the floor and removes the empty frame from the wall. Perhaps she will wait a while before replacing it. She scrapes the blood out of the dent in wall, which she now realizes is from Azula's head, as best she can before she calls it quits and crawls into bed beside her girlfriend.

Azula is still awake when she arrives. "Why didn't you come home last night?"

"I couldn't face you." Ty Lee does not mention why.

"I froze you out for no reason," Azula comments, and Ty Lee realizes with a rush of horror that Azula is blaming herself.

Ty Lee curls up against her side and slides a hand up to cup her cheek. "It's not your fault."

Azula removes Ty Lee's hand but does not let go of it. "Don't say that."

She sleeps at her girlfriend's side for the first time in a month, and she feels so dirty.

April, 106 AG

Ty Lee does not press Azula to have a party for her twentieth birthday. She has been going to pains to keep Azula and Suki separated, which has not been easy, because she is again extremely reluctant to leave Azula alone. She is just not prepared to reconcile her feelings toward each one with the other.

You love Azula.

But you loved Suki first.

Do you really love Suki, though?

You did.

But do you still?

You kissed her.

You also kissed Mai.

No, Mai kissed you.

But Mai doesn't love you.

Do you know that for sure?

Of course. Mai doesn't like women. And besides, Suki's with Sokka.

It doesn't matter. You can't stay with Azula just because Suki's unavailable.

Ty Lee loves Azula. She know that deep down, but a nagging voice in her head keeps reminding her how easy a life with Suki would be. Suki would not give her the cold shoulder for a month for no reason at all. Suki would actually be amenable to the idea of going out with the Kyoshi Warriors every once in a while. There is no danger of coming home and finding Suki incoherent in a pool of blood. She hates herself for even thinking it.

But she loves Azula. She will not leave Azula. Ty Lee does not think she loves Suki. Not really. Maybe she did once. She certainly could have, given the opportunity. But she doesn't. Not now.

When she returns from the training house, she packs a basket of fruits and vegetables and takes Azula down to the beach. They settle in under a tree on the far end of the island, where they are less likely to be interrupted, because their picnic does look vaguely romantic, and Ty Lee does not want Azula to feel uncomfortable. She has decided that she is finished pushing. She may have had her life prioritized, but Azula has not. Azula also spent fourteen years furiously trying to gain approval, and Ty Lee cannot fault her for being hesitant to do something that is sure to lose it.

"It's also our anniversary, you know," Ty Lee says conversationally as she takes a bite out of a banana.

"I think it was probably the day after my birthday by the time we actually became a couple," Azula points out, entirely nonplussed.

Ty Lee merely waves a hand. "Why nitpick?"

Azula shrugs. "I don't see why it matters anyway." She stares out at the horizon. The sun is sinking below the waves, casting the sky in colors like fire, and Azula seems content just to look at it. God, she is beautiful.

"I just wanted you to know that we've been together for a year." She sighs. She should not do this right now, she knows. She should have done it a long time ago, but she put it off, and now she has herself boxed into a corner, because Azula will probably be expecting mind-blowing birthday/anniversary sex, and when Ty Lee can't fulfill that expectation because every time she touches Azula's skin, she remembers touching Suki's, Azula will probably blame herself. "I have to tell you something."

Azula puts down the banana she has been working on and looks away from the sky. "That sounds ominous."

"It… it is." Ty Lee drops her eyes to the blanket and takes a deep breath. "I kissed Suki."

She hears a sharp intake of breath beside her, but when Azula speaks, her voice is level. "When?"

"When we weren't really talking," Ty Lee answers, color rising to her cheeks. "It happened at that party."

"Then one you didn't come home from?" Azula asks sharply. "You slept with her?"

"No!" Ty Lee cries. "Well, technically yes, but all we did was sleep."

"While I was having a breakdown and nearly killing myself, you were asleep in her bed?" She sounds livid now, but she also sounds betrayed, and Ty Lee thinks that is worse.

"I was upset," Ty Lee replies weakly. "And lonely. You weren't speaking to me, and I didn't know why, and instead of trying to talk to you, I talked to someone else, and something happened, but I wish it hadn't. I'm so sorry."

Azula is silent for a moment before she speaks again. "Is that all?"

"Listen, Azula, I know you have no reason to believe me," she is speaking so quickly that the words are practically tumbling out of her mouth. "But I meant everything I said. I love you so much, and I'm so sorry. It was stupid. It was so stupid. I've felt sick ever since."

"You're right," Azula replies. "I have no reason to believe you."

The relationship is over.

"But you've never had any reason to believe anything I've said, and you've believed it anyway," she continues. "So I supposed I can extend you the same courtesy this once."

Ty Lee cannot believe what she is hearing. She looks up at her companion. "Are you… are you forgiving me?"

Azula matches her gaze. "You're the best person I know, Ty Lee." A pause. "But if you ever repeat that to anyone, I will deny I said it."

Ty Lee slides her hand across the blanket to cover Azula's and she does not pull away.

The relationship is not over.

Ty Lee pours herself into Azula that night, as if it can absolve her of her wrongdoings. Her mouth is everywhere and she leaves tears in her wake. She grips so hard she leaves bruises. She does not relent until actual screams rip themselves from Azula's throat. It is not exactly mind-blowing birthday sex, but it is certainly the most emotional sex Ty Lee has ever had.

Afterwards, she crawls up to Azula's side and laces their fingers together while she waits for her to stop panting. When Azula finally rolls her head towards her, there are tears in her eyes, and Ty Lee does not know why.

"Do you love her?"

Ty Lee leans over and kisses her as if that in itself can makes the pain disappear. "No," she answers. "I think I did once, but that was before I loved you."

Azula draws her eyebrows together in thought. "Will I know it when I feel it?"

"Love?" Ty Lee shakes her head against the pillow. "It's not like that. It's not something that just happens. You don't not love someone one day and then love them the next. It's gradual. And once you realize it, you can't remember when it started."

"Oh," Azula replies, and then she is silent for a while. "I might love you." It is more than she ever thought she would hear from Azula.

"It's okay." Ty Lee brings the back of her girlfriend's hand to her lips and scoots towards her until she can feel the Princess' sweat-coated body against her own. "You don't have to decide right now." She feels Azula nod against her forehead. "I knew I loved you the first time I held you," Ty Lee adds. "When I thought I was going to die."

Azula is silent for a moment. "How unfortunate."

"Yes." Ty Lee sighs. "It was."

Another moment of silence. "That was a long time ago."

"Yes," Ty Lee agrees. "It was."

Azula reaches her free arm across her body to tuck a lose strand of hair behind Ty Lee's ear. Her forearm is healing so nicely. Ty Lee can barely even see the cuts she inflicted on herself two months ago. Her knuckles, however, will probably scar.

An idea occurs to her then, and she lifts her head off of Azula's shoulder so she can see her face. "Do you want to dance?"

She'd promised herself that they would after the wedding, but then Azula hadn't been speaking to her, and when she finally was, Ty Lee had been feeling almost too guilty to even look at her, so it had never happened.

Azula's eyes widen in surprise. "Right now?"

"Yeah," Ty Lee replies, sitting up and grinning wickedly. "Come on."

"But there's no music."

"Who cares?" She swings her legs out of the bed and reaches for her robe. "We'll make our own."

She pulls Azula out of the bed after her and into the living room, where Azula reaches for her waist.

"No," Ty Lee says as she redirects the hand to her shoulder. "I'm going to lead this time."

"Why?"

She rolls her eyes. "Because I'm the one who actually knows what I'm doing." She plants her hand firmly at her girlfriend's waist and begins to hum a song that she heard at the wedding. The Fire Lord's song.

It is awkward at first. Ty Lee has to hold them apart so that Azula can glance down at their feet when she needs to. Azula is not any better at keeping a beat than Mai has ever been, and she is never ready when Ty Lee changes direction, but eventually, she feels comfortable enough in Azula's ability to pull her closer, revel in the feeling of their bodies against each other, without armor or the perceptions of other people between them. They still trip over each other's legs because even Azula is not that quick a learner, and she looks frustrated every time, as if she expected to be a prodigy at dancing the same way she was a prodigy at firebending, but Ty Lee just laughs and pulls them back together to pick up where they left off.

"Now you'll be ready for the next wedding," Ty Lee comments when she finally feels her eyelids becoming heavy.

She feels Azula nod against the side of her head. "We'll dance at the next wedding," she replies. "At the reception. On the dance floor."

Ty Lee halts their movement and takes a step back. Cocks her head and studies her girlfriend for a moment. "Azula, we don't have to if you don't want to," she answers. "I'm done fighting over it."

"We will," Azula promises. "But not a moment before."

It could be years before the next wedding, Ty Lee realizes. Maybe not until Sokka and Suki's, and that is at least four years down the road. She finds she doesn't care, because if Azula is willing to think that far ahead in terms of their relationship, she cannot complain.

Azula sleeps against her that night, their legs tangled together, and Ty Lee does not have the urge to vomit. She does not think about how warm Suki's stomach is, how soft her lips are, or how stable their relationship would be, because Azula moves against her, and if Suki is a ray of sunshine and a gentle breeze, Azula is a tropical storm. She is cold and unpredictable and unbearably proud. And she is so beautiful. And so fragile. And in this moment, Ty Lee cannot imagine herself with anyone else.

She sleeps well for the first time in four months.

"You look happy," Suki comments when Ty Lee arrives the training house the next morning. Her voice is hesitant. If Ty Lee's relationship with Azula has been rocky since the kiss, her relationship with Suki has been a landslide. Suki had given up trying to talk to her about what happened within a week, and switched to topics such as the incoming class of Kyoshi Warriors and the weather. Suki is hurt. Ty Lee can see that, and she feels bad, because she kissed Suki, and now she is distancing herself from her, but Ty Lee has not been able to bring herself to explain that it is merely out of guilt, to explain that when she sees Suki, she hates herself because she wants to be kissing her again.

This morning, when Ty Lee enters the training house, she only sees Suki as a friend.

"I am happy," she replies, flashing Suki a brilliant smile, and it brings a smile to her captain's face as well.

Ty Lee sits next to her at lunch for the first time in two months. Suki looks at her in surprise. "I told Azula about what happened," she explains conversationally.

"You did?" Suki's forehead creases in concern. "How'd it go?"

Ty Lee beams. "Well, I'm still alive," she answers cheerfully. "And I'm not single."

"That's great, Ty," Suki replies. "And a little surprising. What happened?"

"She… forgave me," Ty Lee answers. The word tastes odd on her tongue, and she suspects it is because she has never so much as thought it in reference to Azula.

"Wow. That was… big of her." Suki sounds as shocked as Ty Lee feels. She takes a bite of her sandwich and chews it thoughtfully. "I told Sokka a while back."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." She shrugs. "He took it pretty well. He said it was fine as long as he got to join us next time."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

Suki laughs. "I ask myself the same question every day." She is silent for a while, but Ty Lee can almost hear the gears turning in her head, can tell she is deciding whether to speak by the way she keeps opening her mouth, freezing, and then closing it again. Finally, "Does this mean we're… friends again?"

Ty Lee sighs. "Suki…"

"It's okay if you're still mad at me," she adds quickly. "I'm kind of still mad at me too."

"I was never mad at you," Ty Lee explains. "I was guilty, and I felt guiltier when I was around you, because… because every time I saw you, all I could think about was how we kissed, and I liked it."

Suki smiles at her. Understanding. Hesitant. "I mean, we didn't have sex or anything." Her voice is hushed.

"But I would have," Ty Lee admits, color rising to her cheeks. "If you hadn't stopped me, I would have. I meant what I said at the party. I really, really liked you. Maybe even loved you. For years."

Suki sighs. "Maybe if things had gone differently…"

"Maybe," Ty Lee agrees. She allows herself to imagine for a second what her life would have been like if Sokka had not rescued Suki, if their second meeting had been at the Boiling Rock. She allows herself to imagine a future with Suki, a life with Suki. And then she lets it go. "But the two of us were never meant to be. Not in this lifetime." She matches her friend's tentative smile with one of her own. "Don't worry. We're still friends."

A week after her twentieth birthday, Azula wakes up screaming. Ty Lee does not know if she has fewer nightmares now than she did before, but they do not wake Ty Lee up as often, and she hopes that means that they are at least not as bad.

She sits and pants with the blanket clutched around her stomach as Ty Lee pushes herself off the pillow. "What's going on?" she yawns, rubbing her eyes.

"Nothing," Azula answers. "Go back to sleep." She will not meet her eye, and Ty Lee is reminded forcefully of first time she was woken up by Azula screams, during her second week on Kyoshi Island, while she was still sleeping on the couch.

Ty Lee presses on. "Something's going on. Did you have a nightmare? It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Azula shakes her head as she lies back down, too tired to argue. "I've been having them again since the wedding."

"Azula," Ty Lee groans lowering herself back to the pillow and hooking her chin over her girlfriend's shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Azula shrugs. "It's not a big deal." She yawns. "I'm kind of used to them, you know."

She rolls over and Ty Lee curls into her back and snakes her arms around her stomach. "What was it about?"

"Nothing."

"Come on, Azula," Ty Lee pleads. "You can tell me."

"Honestly, it was nothing," Azula insists. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm tired."

"You can go to sleep," she replies stubbornly. "Once you tell me."

"It was my father," Azula mutters. "There. Happy?"

"What did he say?"

"Nothing of consequence."

"Azula, you were screaming."

"He said nothing"

"Azula!"

"Fine," she grumbles, and she rolls back over to face Ty Lee, to look her in the eye. "He said I was crazy. He said I was worthless. He said I was a failure and a disappointment." She pauses. She might even be hesitating. "And he said that was why you ran to Suki."

Ty Lee must look horrified, because Azula's face softens. "Do you see why I didn't want to tell you?"

Ty Lee reaches up and cups her cheek, even though she can feel tears stinging her eyes because how could she ever hurt Azula like this? "Don't you ever not tell me what's going on with you to spare my feelings, okay?"

Azula nods and buries her face in the pillow, and as she wraps herself protectively around Azula's body and feels the harsh rise and fall of her breath, Ty Lee thinks she might be concealing tears.

May, 106 AG

Zuko and Mai's baby is born on the sixth day after Ty Lee and Azula arrive in the Fire Nation. Ty Lee had not seen Mai since the wedding, but when they'd arrived at the palace—Mai had not come out of meet them at the dock—Ty Lee had been surprised the Fire Lady was even able to walk. Mai is tall, but she is also remarkably slim, and she had seemed dwarfed by her own stomach. Somehow, though, she still managed to look dignified, regal. It is a gift that Ty Lee has wished she had more than once.

A servant had come to fetch Ty Lee and Azula in the small hours of the morning, when it was still dark outside and before the birds had even started to sing, and with six words, "The Fire Lady is in labor," Ty Lee had been out of bed, mostly dressed, and pulling Azula behind her down the palace corridors.

Now they are standing, still in their robes, outside the Mai and Zuko's bedchamber listening to Mai's screams. Each wave makes Ty Lee wince. She bounces nervously on the balls of her feet, because this baby is not due for almost another two months, and even as the youngest child, Ty Lee knows that the odds of a good outcome are not in their favor. Azula's face is like stone.

"I am never having children," Azula comments, eyes flitting anxiously toward the door.

Ty Lee bursts out laughing. "You? As a mother? Please, Azula. No one who's ever met you thinks that would be a good idea."

"Did you ever want children?" The question is surprising, but not entirely unwelcome.

"I've thought about it," she shrugs. "With some of the other people that I've liked."

"Suki," Azula supplies, and Ty Lee nods.

"But it's never been a deal-breaker."

Azula sighs. "I thought I would have to have children," she replies. "I've always thought I would need an heir."

"I guess that's the silver lining of not being the Fire Lord," Ty Lee comments, and, this time, Azula nods.

"I was supposed to have an arranged marriage, you know," she adds conversationally. "I don't know who to, but my father had someone in mind towards the end of the war."

"Really?" Ty Lee's eyes widen.

"Oh, don't look so surprised," Azula snaps. "I was the princess. I was valuable. He was never going to keep me to himself forever. And just because my dear brother is too noble to marry me off for his own benefit—"

"Azula," Ty Lee interrupts. "No offense, but I don't think the list of families willing to marry their sons to you is exactly long. Not anymore. I mean…" she shrugs. "Everyone knows you're never going to rule." She hopes she does not sound too harsh. "Sorry."

Azula waves a hand. "It's fine, Ty Lee. I'm just the crazy princess now. You're probably right."

Ty Lee reaches for her hand, and they wait in relative silence for a while, Mai's steady stream of death threats still permeating the heavy wooden doors.

"Well, Mai should just be glad she's getting this out of the way now," Azula says, crossing her arms. "Then it will be over with."

"But she'll have to have more than one," Ty Lee points out. "I mean, look what happened when your uncle's only son died."

"That's true," Azula points out. "I could still ascend to the throne."

Ty Lee frowns. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Yes it is."

"Maybe a little bit."

"Why did they even wake us up for this?" the Princess huffs. "It's not like there's anything we can do to help, and it's been hours."

"So we can be here when the baby's born," Ty Lee explains as if it should have been the most obvious thing in the world. But then, Azula never really did understand regular human emotions. Azula probably does not comprehend the gravity of the situation.

Silence falls around midday. Ty Lee and Azula have eaten their lunches in the corridor outside the door because even though Azula wanted to go sit at the table in the grand dining room "like an actual, civilized person" Ty Lee would not budge, and she would not go alone.

Mai's cries break off suddenly and there is silence. And then there is chaos. Servants run out of the room and back in with things like bowls and towels and spoons. Ty Lee keeps trying to get a glimpse of what is happening inside the room every time the door swings open, but all she can see are the midwives bustling around carrying things, any one of which could be the actual baby, and Mai laying on the bed looking about as white as the Avatar's flying bison.

Azula makes a noise that sounds like a growl, and only then does Ty Lee realize how hard she is squeezing her hand. "You could have told me it hurt," she mutters, and Azula folds her arms. Ty Lee is too preoccupied to press the matter.

It is five minutes before they hear crying, and Ty Lee breathes again.

It is nearly twenty minutes before anyone comes back out of the room. "Do you think they've forgotten about us?" Azula asks, sounding moderately insulted.

"I wouldn't blame them if they had."

And then Zuko pokes his head out the door. There are dark bags under his eyes, and his hair is disheveled, and he is not wearing his crown, but he is smiling as wide as Ty Lee thinks she has ever seen him smile. "You can come in now."

The first thing Ty Lee notices is Mai, on the bed, chest still heaving. Her hair is down and it is completely drenched, her entire body covered in a sheen of sweat. She reminds Ty Lee of how she must have looked when she was sick last year. In her arms there is a small bundle that Ty Lee imagines must be the baby. By the window, Zuko is clenching and unclenching his fist, wincing in pain, but with a detached smile on his face nonetheless.

A whisper comes from the bed, "How long have you been waiting?" and when Ty Lee looks over, the Fire Lady's eyes are open and one corner of her mouth is turned up in a content half-smile that looks out of place on the face of her best friend.

"All morning," Azula complains, though Ty Lee thinks she sounds less annoyed than she could have.

"I wish it had been quick," Mai replies, voice still shaking. "Believe me." She glances at Azula, and then she takes a long look at Ty Lee. "Don't ever give birth."

"We weren't planning on it," Ty Lee assures her with a giggle.

"Would you like to see her?" Zuko is speaking again, stepping away from the window and towards the bed.

"Yes!" Ty Lee squeals, because she really cannot contain herself. Amidst all of her relationship problems, this is the one thing she has really been looking forward to for the past few months. The prospect of seeing Mai and Zuko's baby has kept her sane.

Mai sits up with some effort and holds the bundle out to Ty Lee as she climbs up on the edge of the bed.

She is so small and so delicate. Ty Lee is certain she will break her if she holds her the wrong way. Her lips are still tinged with blue and all of the veins in her eyelids are visible. Ty Lee can feel her breathing, and it is magical. She looks back and forth between Zuko and Mai, her mouth hanging awkwardly open, for a long time before she can make any words come out. "She's gorgeous."

She turns her head to the spot where Azula is standing, gripping her bicep with her opposite hand and looking uncomfortable and out of place. "Azula, come here," she calls. "Do you want to hold your niece?"

Zuko looks for a moment like he might object, but then he smiles, and Ty Lee thinks it might be genuine. Azula takes a step toward her and then another, and then Ty Lee is thrusting the bundle into her arms. They'll look alike, Ty Lee thinks. Zuko and Azula look so much alike, both just like their mother and barely like Ozai at all.

"What is her name?" Azula demands sharply.

Zuko take a seat on the bed beside his wife and grasps her hand. "Raiza."

Azula looks down at the bundle, studies it. "Fire Lord Raiza," she murmurs slowly, as if she is testing it out. The child will know her aunt, Ty Lee realizes. She is sure that it is not something any of them saw coming two years ago.

Mai is out, dead to the world, just like all of those nights in the Earth Kingdom when they were fourteen and fifteen, and Ty Lee was caught between Mai's love for Zuko and Azula's duty to her father, but now Zuko is here and so is Azula, and it has been six years since they last tried to kill each other.

"I was going to kill her," Zuko had admitted to her and Mai all of those years ago, and then Mai had admitted that she'd known, and Ty Lee had wondered how she'd missed it, and they'd all agreed that the asylum was the best place for her, for now at least, but maybe forever. And now here she is, in relatively good health, standing among the first three people to ever betray her, looking appraisingly at her niece. There are a lot of emotions written on Azula's face, but malice is not one of them.

She is, once again, second in line for the throne.

She hands the baby back to Zuko and Ty Lee goes to her, slips her arms around her waist, rests her chin on her shoulder. Azula crosses her arms because affection is still not her strong suit, especially not with other people in the room, but Ty Lee is too happy to care, and Zuko is too distracted to notice. She knows that they will go back to their room after this, and Azula will complain the entire way about how tired she is and how rude it was of that servant to wake them up, but she will ensure that the back of her hand brushes Ty Lee's as they walk, the way she always does when she wants Ty Lee to hold her hand, but does not want to initiate it, and then when they get back to the room, Ty Lee will pin her against the door and kiss her, and that will end of any talk about going to sleep.

Ty Lee's life is not what she thought it would be when she ran away to the circus or when she was recruited by Azula or when she was locked in the Boiling Rock or even when she arrived on Kyoshi Island.

Azula's life is not what anyone imagined it would be, least of all, Azula herself. She is not the Fire Lord, she does not have armies at her disposal, and she cannot invade other nations at will, but she is also she is not in prison or in the asylum, and she is not dead. And she seems happy, and she is loved, and Ty Lee thinks that maybe that is enough.

A/N: So there you go. I did end up increasing the rating. It was really all because of that line from the flashback about the blood staining Azula's legs. Without that line, I would have probably kept it at a T, but that one line pushed me to the point where I felt I was squarely in M territory. On an unrelated note, if there is one thing I could do differently with this story, I would have given it a shorter title.

You guys don't even understand how close I came to writing a really depressing ending. Like, every possible way this story could have ended badly, I considered it. I considered killing Ty Lee, killing Azula, killing Mai, killing the baby, I considered Ty Lee and Suki actually having sex and then Azula and Ty Lee breaking up over it, I considered Mai continuing to dislike her child after she was born, I considered Suki accidentally getting pregnant and having to leave the Kyoshi Warriors, I considered combinations of those things, but in the end, I decided I really just wanted them to be happy, so that's how I left it.

Speaking of things I'm considering. A sequel. It wouldn't be my next project, but maybe sometime down the road if there's interest. Let me know. My ideas for upcoming stories include something similar to If You Look for the Light, but from Mai's point of view, and a story about the dangerous ladies being actual teenagers while they're hunting down the Gaang in the Earth Kingdom (because I now really want to write a scene where Ty Lee tries to teach Mai how to dance), so those will probably be my next two projects, unless another idea hits me in the meantime.

Reviews, guys! I love getting them. I welcome all types of criticism, as long as it's constructive. I will respond to you if you give me something to respond to.