AN: Okay, so I got some really good criticism about Ty Lee being kind of vapid and without character development. I totally agree, and I put my best effort into adding some of her mannerisms and building her relationship with Azula a bit more colorfully on Ty Lee's part. I don't know if I did a good job or not, but I gave it my best shot, and I'm keeping it in mind. If she seems OOC, or withoutC, in this case, please tell me; I'm really thankful that it was pointed out.

Ty Lee looks at Azula with her heart pounding as the princess sits in a dark red robe with her soaking hair a dark, wet curtain around her. The stains of water streak down from her shoulders, making the fabric stick to her skin, and Azula waits for Ty Lee to stare at it like anyone would, but she doesn't.

And so, Azula sighs and decides to continue.

"I completely misunderstand how you could think that was intentional," Azula says with a look in her eyes that dares Ty Lee to protest.

The bodyguard takes a few slow, deep breathes and tries to clear her head. This isn't quite what she signed up for, but she supposes that there is a part of her, a part of her that she didn't have to force and beat into submission long ago, that wants to help this girl.

That sees a shred of humanity, a girl who just needs somebody to love her. Not that her bodyguard is exactly the person to do that but...

"I know, princess," Ty Lee decides, and Azula does not look very relieved by Ty Lee's acceptance. And Ty Lee offers a smile, this one not so real.

"I know you're faking," Azula says, wondering if she should tack on innuendo, but it would be classless in this scenario. Grasping at straws instead of luring in her prey. "If you honestly think that I have never had a babysitter who has tried to be my friend before, you are dumber than you look."

Ty Lee sighs and leans back. "I'm not faking. It's really awkward to be with you all the time and touch your, well, if we're not at least kinda friends."

Azula studies her closely, silently, her golden eyes piercing into Ty Lee eerily. The bodyguard rubs her arm and flashes faked smile number eighteen Azula has noticed.

"So, you're breaking tension. Fine. But I think getting to know me is just absurd and the only reason I have tolerated this long is because you are a research project of mine." The girl's eyebrow cocks at that and Ty Lee tilts her head slightly to the side, not sure what to make of it.

"I already told you," Ty Lee says shrilly and Azula rolls her eyes. "You're sixteen."

Azula rubs her lips together, purposefully neglects yet again to ask why those two words are the only ones that aren't that forced saccharine tone that is developed to turn on old generals and make shallow friends and babysit actual children. They have actual meaning, and Azula will find it out, and use it to gut her, if it is the last thing she does.

Ty Lee contemplates saying, I did just save your life, princess! but she does not think it would do her work any good. Azula leaves and goes to dress herself, and presumably sulk in her room as Ty Lee stands up, sighs and stares into the mirror.

'I know you're faking.'

No, because no one does. It would be a guess. A lucky guess. Or something contrived from those files Azula read without permission. The girl does unnerve Ty Lee to a certain extent, but that nature of hers to dissect other people instead of get to know them through conversation just makes Ty Lee want to succeed even more.

Oh, Azula may be ambitious in her attempts to either screw Ty Lee or screw her over, but Ty Lee is twice as ambitious in her own mission to rescue this cold heiress.

Azula is tired. So very tired. She has possibly never been this tired in her life.

Despite that fact, the princess stays awake for longer than she wants to. The people who tried to kill her are taken away, but they are not on her mind. She just sinks into the furniture, not aware why she is so tired. Her bodyguard has this small pout on her lips, and Azula does not like it.

It looks like pity, and that frustrates her. Princess Azula has been pitied by people, and it is even worse than being hated by them.

And to be offered friendship the way she was offered chocolate after her altercation with her father?

It makes her sick.

Her day off has been drained by yet another attempt on her life, and she has no idea where it could possibly be coming from. Of course assassins would be after her, being the princess of such a significant empire, but they clearly were unified under one flag, and therefore must have a sole desire.

And Princess Azula wants to know what that desire is, much more than anything else.

Well, much more than one thing. She wants to understand the woman her father forced on her. This woman whom Azula has made note of the various expressions forced and natural, and the way she fidgets, the way she looks like she does not want to sit still for long, and how she glosses over as much as she can. But Azula struggles to read her, and it is infinitely frustrating.

Firstly, Azula has been reasonably attracted to her since the moment she was pinned beneath her after the original attempt on Azula's life. And her resistance is troubling enough. Her past in espionage is interesting, her fierce determination but the way she reminds Azula of some type of Butterfly-Dragon is intriguing.

People who seem to have nothing beneath the surface are the people who are hiding the most.

Infatuation, is all.

Conquest, is all.

The need find the ulterior motive for her attempt at "friendship" that seems to be nonexistent.

Azula would obsess over anything that posed a challenge to break and bend to her will.

Ty Lee delivered the assassins to those who were far above her pay-grade, and then did not have to learn anything about them. She was happier that was; she always was. And she still is, to this day, as her pale pink heels click against the stone floors of the Fire Nation Royal Palace.

She does the mission, she enjoys the thrill, and she leaves the consequences to other people. Being a thoughtless weapon is easy, but she has a very uncomfortable conflict in her tonight that has nothing to do with still reeling from a young girl throwing her naked self at Ty Lee.

That is pretty easy to ignore. Ty Lee doesn't do love because love can go very wrong, and can really easily crush a person who likes to flow with the wing and sting where she is told to sting. Ty Lee doesn't do physical attraction because it has always been a hardened weapon to her, and never been much fun beyond how much she has grown to enjoy making boys drool before fleeing their affections.

But, no, she is in a deep conflict over the fact that she wants to know more.

She wants to do more.

Azula is the most aggravating person she has ever worked with, more frustrating than any politician, general, judge or other authority figure.

Ty Lee, however, can feel her protective candy coating melting around her.

That is bad for everyone in every possible way.

Azula stirs in the night and briefly wakes with a sudden gasp, not knowing where she is. At first she thinks she has been kidnapped by the people who are out for her blood, but then she recognizes her bedroom. It is not quite daybreak, and so she sinks into her bed again.

She does not remember getting into here.

Oh, she does recall as her eyes close again.

She was carried in.