"I can't sleep," Azula says, sighing.

She is in Ty Lee's house, cramped in her twin bed which is mostly occupied by a legion of stuffed animals. Azula is pressed up against their fur and she would have usually demanded the bed and Ty Lee to sleep on the floor, but this nagging part of her insisted on being uncomfortably close to Ty Lee. It does feel far too pleasant for such close sleeping arrangements.

"I can't either," Ty Lee declares. "I'm thinking too much."

"You're... thinking too much?" Azula asks, bewildered. That usually is more of her problem than Ty Lee's.

"Yup. I feel like I peaked. We just conquered Ba Sing Se. I mean, I'm going nowhere. You're going to do amazing things and probably be something even cooler than Fire Lord like Volcano Empress and I'm... I don't even know." Ty Lee sounds genuinely concerned and Azula is startled. She never imagined Ty Lee as thinking ahead.

"Volcano Empress?" however, is all Azula can respond with.

"Or Dragon Priestess. There are lots of options for you, princess," Ty Lee says with an unnerving earnestness. "Let me put on my thinking pajamas."

"Your... what?" Azula has never slept over at Ty Lee's house before. Usually everything happened at the palace or Mai's house. Mai is, however, with Zuko, and Azula came to Ty Lee's in order to specifically escape the palace.

But this place is incredibly weird. Mai's parents always would force things upon Azula. She would walk through the door and have cookies shoved into her hands and Mai's mother would burst in upon occasion asking Azula if she wanted anything. Ty Lee's house has many people Azula does not know the names of, and the new money look intrigues Azula. Nothing is antique. Including the furry army on the bed that Azula feels as if she is being perpetually watched by.

"My thinking pajamas," Ty Lee says, rummaging through her drawers. Her clothes are endless, and all pink. She slips out of her current pajamas and Azula finds herself incapable of looking away. But her face is masked by a plush tiger monkey, so she thinks she has nothing to fear.

"They enable you to think?" Azula asks as Ty Lee is slipping on the pink nightgown. It is torn, unlike her other brand new clothes.

"They help me think. Also, this," Ty Lee says, picking up a small rubber ball meant for children. She pounces on the bed and lies down close to Azula, their bare ankles touching and prompting Azula's skin to turn to gooseflesh.

Ty Lee starts bouncing it on the ceiling.

"Isn't insomnia fun?" Azula sincerely hopes that ball does not collide with her face.

"How much would you pay to see a really weird shaped human heart in a jar?" Ty Lee asks as she catches the ball she threw at the ceiling. It leaves a small dent and Azula wonders if her parents will care. Azula swiftly decides that it is likely they will not notice.

"I have never paid for anything. I am a princess," Azula replies honestly and Ty Lee squints. She examines the rubber ball for a moment and then tosses it at the ceiling again. "Buuuut if I had to give a rough estimate... three copper pieces."

"Three copper pieces? Ouch. Do you know what I did to get that heart?"

"Do you... actually have a weird shaped human heart in a jar?"

"No. But I worked really hard to get this hypothetical weirdly shaped human heart in a jar," Ty Lee whines and Azula suppresses a smile. "Look, Azula, I really need this circus idea to take off."

"You won a war. Bask in the endless glow of glory and sign autographs for grubby little peasant children until you're old. You really have no need to open a circus unless you're going to use it as a front for something more interesting," Azula purrs regally, examining the stuffed animal that has been staring at her.

"Interesting how? I am hearing all offers, and, evidently, you, being the embodiment of perfection, my beautiful sunflower princess, have the best offers because your brain is even more perfect than your face," Ty Lee rattles off, grinning. Her compliments would be painful if Azula were not so sexually attracted to her.

"I know." Azula tries to fight the blush but it attacks her cheeks anyway. "Okay, honest to Agni, Ty Lee, why do you have all of these stuffed animals? They are honestly creeping me out. Their eyes are always watching."

"I like them." Ty Lee swishes her iced tea around in her mouth and swallows. "You can burn one if you want."

"Which one do you like best... so I won't burn it," Azula asks pleasantly, batting her thick, dark eyelashes.

"I'm not falling for that. But really, what should I do with my life now that I've conquered the Earth Kingdom? I could open a bakery."

"Ugh. I'm burning all of them now." Azula sits up and moves for the neck of a stuffed poodle monkey. Ty Lee shrieks in absolute terror and Azula has to force herself not to laugh.

"No, don't, please!" Ty Lee whimpers and Azula lies down again. "What should I do?"

"Become my beautiful mistress?" Azula suggests, wishing she were not so enamored with that idea. That, Azula could enjoy.

"Hmmm." Ty Lee taps her lip with her eyes squinting intently at the wall.

"That's way too much thinking for such an obvious good idea. I'll buy you a really nice house on the taxpayer silver piece. And we can hook up in dangerous places."

"Hmmm." She tosses the ball at the ceiling. It misses her hand despite her unnaturally fast reflexes and rolls under the bed. Neither girl moves to retrieve it and they pretend it never existed.

"Still thinking? Well, I would pay good money to watch you acquire this weirdly shaped human heart in a jar," Azula says, changing the subject. She hopes Ty Lee thinks she was kidding about the mistress thing. Ty Lee does make grotesquely sexual comments about her female friends as jokes.

"So, for my circus, we pick a random person from the audience and rip their heart out in front of everybody."

"I like this so far, but what if it's normal shaped?"

"Then we just keeping chopping people open until we find a weird one." Ty Lee shrugs. Azula supposes that is logically sound by Ty Lee standards.

"Yes. That should work," Azula says, feeling a strange joy within her.

"Do you think we've having more fun than Mai and Zuko?" Ty Lee asks, frowning for a moment.

"Probably not. They're likely screwing right now," Azula says openly and Ty Lee giggles. "What? What's funny about that?"

"I bet they think we're screwing right now."

"I doubt it." Azula's voice shakes slightly and she hates herself for it.

"Permission to speak freely, princess?" Ty Lee asks and Azula hesitates. 'Permission to speak freely' usually means 'permission to be a dick'.

"Granted," Azula says hesitantly.

"I kind of thought when you asked for a sleepover, that was what you meant. But we ate snacks and painted our nails." Ty Lee laughs and Azula... Azula had no idea that that was an option. If she had known it were an option...

"Oh." Azula falls silent and Ty Lee becomes concerned. Upsetting the princess is a one way ticket to an executioner's block.

"I... Not that... you could do way better than me, anyway," Ty Lee says, stammering slightly. This sleepover just became a new level of uncomfortable.

"I would..." Azula's mouth is very dry. Ty Lee looks at her hopefully, desperate out of the situation she has pushed herself into. "I would very much like to take you up on that offer."

"Oh really?"

"But not in front of the stuffed animals. Particularly that one. That one is the creepiest."