A/N: I haven't written anything in four months, and I had this idea for a sugary, summery little piece while I was freezing my socks off in class. I hope you guys like it.

It is the last adventure before Mai moves away to the Earth Kingdom, and three girls are basking in the sun on Ember Island. Azula can feel it in her veins, surging, coursing through her. Mai is trying to hide in the shadows, and Ty Lee is happily constructing a sandcastle on the private beach behind Mai's family's summer home.

"We should swim!" Ty Lee declares loudly as soon as Mai emerges from the shadows in her bathing suit.

"I don't swim. I don't even know how." Mai's tone is undeniably firm. She looks out at the water, her nose upturned at it. Her arms are crossed.

"You've had a house on this island for years and you don't know how to swim?" Azula demands snidely, looking mockingly aghast. "Your parents never pushed you in the water and just...?"

"My parents just pushed me in and I swam!" Ty Lee announces brightly in assent to Azula, her legs wrapped around her smooth yellow sandcastle. It is already halfway completed after they have only been on the beach for ten minutes.

"The A Girls hit the beach!" Ty Lee exclaims, smoothing out one of the windows on her sand castle.

"Can you stop calling us that?" Mai sighs, sitting down. Now I have sand all over me, she thinks, sighing yet again.

"It's a great name," Ty Lee protests and Mai rolls her eyes.

"Your name doesn't even have an A in it," Mai says and Ty Lee shrugs. "It's only called that because Azula starts with A."

"That's not true," Azula snaps, aggravated. Mai blows her hair out of her face. "Look, are we going to go in the water or not?"

"I can't swim either," Ty Lee remarks and Azula's jaw drops. She is surrounded by incompetent buffoons. "Well, I mean, I can like tread water. But nothing fancy."

"I thought you said that your parents pushed you in?" Azula demands with her eyebrows raised. Ty Lee shrugs again.

"Well, the things is, I wound up so scared after they pushed me in that I was too afraid to learn how to swim after that," Ty Lee admits with an added grin. Ty Lee then shrugs and Azula throws a ball of fire at the sand castle. It explodes in a blast of blue.

"See, that's why nobody else hangs out with us," Mai remarks, gesturing at Ty Lee's wide eyes and slack jaw. Ty Lee touches the sand and then puts her finger in her mouth, muttering, hot.

"No, Mai¸ nobody else hangs out with us because you're a constant downer. It's not like it matters, anyway," Azula says coldly, walking towards the glimmering, dark water. The beach is tiny, obscured by branches and dotted with flowers, despite Mai's family's wealth and resources. The spot is absolutely breathtaking, but she likes it solely for the fact that they are alone here, and no one will find them.

"So what's the next step?" Ty Lee floats to her feet with a single push. Mai stays firmly planted next to the crater where the sand castle used to be. She dashes up to the princess, who has her feet in the water. It gently laps against her smooth, pallid legs.

"I'm gonna teach you how to swim," Azula says with a smirk and Mai sighs again. "See, sighing, rudeness, the emotional range of a rock. You are absolutely the reason that no one else wanted to be friends with us."

"I know, princess," Mai replies slowly, plucking one of the flowers from the sand. She peels it apart with her slender fingers, and knows very well that she does not want to argue with Azula.

"Okay, teach me how to swim," Ty Lee says, gesturing at the water.

"She's just going to push you in," Mai says and Azula gives her a biting glare. "You're going to drown, Ty Lee."

"This water is not nearly deep enough for that to work, Mai," Azula says haughtily, gesturing at the shallow, crystal clear waves. She wades out, seizing Ty Lee's wrist. They head out until the water reaches their waists. Their white dresses are weighed down by the water.

"Wait!" Ty Lee exclaims. "This was my mom's special sundress; I can't get it all seaweedy and salty and wet or she'll freak out!"

"If you're so worried about your dress, then give it to Mai to hold," Azula says and Ty Lee tosses her heavy dress to Mai in one swoop. Azula recoils slightly, startled at how quickly it happened. Mai catches it on the first try, setting it down beside her.

"It's all sandy now," Mai mutters dryly to herself, but her two friends cannot hear her.

Azula takes Ty Lee out further. Fire in the water. Set fire to the water.

"You're good in water for being a firebender," Ty Lee remarks as Azula surfaces. She raises her dark eyebrows.

"I'm good at everything, Ty Lee," Azula breathes in response, smirking at her faintly.

"I know. You're pretty amazing," Ty Lee says so honestly, although she stumbles over her words and scratching the side of her head.

Azula smiles slightly. She dives under the water again, dousing herself.

"Just..." Azula reaches out and dunks Ty Lee under, kicking her out further.

"I told you, moron," Mai murmurs weakly under her breath with a roll of her eyes as Ty Lee claws at the surface.

Azula giggles.

Azula and Ty Lee are on Ember Island again. The "party" is over, and they are both on a high from the destruction they caused. From the revenge they gained. Mai and Zuko have disappeared, probably to screw each other, and Ty Lee has Azula firmly by the hand as they walk along the back-roads and beaches, and eventually wind up on the beach by Mai's deserted summer home.

"Well, that's probably why nobody wants to hang out with us," Azula murmurs into Ty Lee's ear as they are at last alone and near the water.

"I don't think I want to hang out with jerks like them." And Ty Lee pauses, squinting at the frothy waves. "I think I'll stick to hanging out with jerks like you and Mai."

Azula cackles and Ty Lee smiles warmly at her. And Azula hates how warm and gentle that smile is, after the sun-baked days. The burning hot jealousy.

"Swim with me," Ty Lee whispers, taking Azula's hand in a slightly different way now. And Azula thinks, perhaps, Ty Lee has the intentions to act upon what Azula is certain that they are both concealing.

"I don't the proper clothes for it," Azula breathes in response and Ty Lee cocks a knowing eyebrow.

"You really don't need clothes to swim," Ty Lee replies, a smirk widening on her face. Azula breathes in and out, and slowly begins to undress, as soon as she is certain that Ty Lee is doing it too.

And they wade, way out on the water, naked.

They want to touch each other, to kiss each other, to fuck right there on the beach.

But it doesn't happen.

Still, the night is far better than Azula imagined it would turn out as she was standing in the corner.

In the morning, they lie in the sun and stay away from the main beaches. Azula, Ty Lee and Zuko have no desire to meet anyone they had come across last night. Mai and Zuko are under an umbrella, Mai asleep in the sand, and Azula and Ty Lee are climbing towards a secluded section of the coast, away from Lo and Li's home.

"Last night was so fun," Ty Lee remarks as she and Azula finally reach the edge of the cliff. It is beautiful, although Azula would never say so aloud. "Do you, uh... do you really... think I'm a tease?"

Azula looks at her, studying her closely and realizing she seems genuinely hurt. The princess purses her lips and then looks out at the lapping waves.

"Yes, yes, I do," Azula replies coolly and Ty Lee has to suppress tears again. "But I think you could change that quite easily."

"... how?" Ty Lee asks feebly, looking around at Ember Island, in all its beauty, and realizing it cannot rival Azula. And her radiance, her heat, their desire.

"Like this," Azula says before kissing Ty Lee on her startled lips.

Ty Lee digs her fingernails into Azula's back, refusing to let go until she is sure that this is real.

It is real. The sun fills them with both life and exhaustion as they bring each other alive and tire each other there on that cliff.

If only these sweet summer days never had to come to an end.

Years later, Azula and Ty Lee find themselves by the sea again, strangely enough, in the same place. They walked away from the palace, guards around them. Azula looks tired and hollow, and Ty Lee has her arm wrapped tightly around the princess.

"See. It's nice to leave the house," Ty Lee remarks with an overly hopeful grin. Azula simply stares back before looking away. "No one's here. It's just us... and your guards."

"Don't patronize me. I'm not five," Azula replies coldly and Ty Lee frowns for a flicker of a second.

"You know, that's why no one wants to hang out with you," Ty Lee whispers, her lips twitching. "Because you're such a downer."

Azula does not respond and Ty Lee stares at her feet. This has been a difficult summer; this has been a difficult time. But she thinks it might be worth it in the end, helping Azula. Just maybe.

"Yes, I am," Azula says, trying to stay detached. But the truth is, the heat from the sun cannot rival the heat she feels towards the girl who has been caring for her. As much as Azula wants to hate her, she is struggling to do so.

"Well, you know how you can change that?" Ty Lee inquires and Azula briefly looks up at her. "Skinny dipping with me for old time's sake."

Azula... Azula complies.

And it is blissful.