+Chapter Two: A Date+

Ty Lee is completely unsure what to make of these developments. She feels like she is in a daze as she is shown to a beautiful bedroom overlooking the shining, eerily blue lake. Why is it so blue? Or is Ty Lee just feeling faint.

Thank you, Zuko. She cannot believe he did not even give her a moment's heads up about the fact that she was going to be expected to do this with Azula. It just doesn't make sense. It just isn't right and Ty Lee has no idea how she is supposed to get through to someone that she has such a history with.

Does Ty Lee want to heal Azula? Yes, absolutely, of course. But she does not know how she is going to confront her own uncomfortable insecurities as well, in order to accomplish it. She just sits and then stands, and then paces and finally collapses face first on her bed and decides to go to sleep.

This has not been the easiest day of her life, that's for sure.

Ty Lee wakes in the morning and waffles over what to wear and how to paint her face more than she has in a long time. She wants Azula to see how impossibly sexy she is, to feel unquenchable desire. That might make this dreadful job worth it, in Ty Lee's eyes.

She goes to breakfast in one of the multiple rooms for staff, all of which are ornate and beautiful. Ty Lee finds this place very strange, but she embraces it and finds herself food and strong black tea.

"Will I see her today?" Ty Lee asks her boss, Lin. The Head Doctor is a woman almost as odd as the asylum she runs, but Ty Lee embraces it and decides to keep her mind open to what may come of this.

She just hopes it isn't bad.

"Of course. She is the only patient you will be working with," Lin explains calmly, as if that is not a humongous undertaking.

Azula was difficult enough before she was inside of a cell. Something tells Ty Lee that Azula will not be pleased for a moment about relinquishing even an ounce of her power.

"So, what were past attempts like? Save for people getting mangled," Ty Lee inquires, hoping that it is reasonable to discuss.

"They went poorly. She doesn't like being in this position. She doesn't, however, despite her intelligence, seem to realize that she will never get out of this position if she does not cooperate with Fire Lord Zuko's requests for her rehabilitation," Lin says, sniffing in and stirring her tea with an unused chopstick.

"People can't be rehabilitated if they don't want to be," Ty Lee says and Lin smiles as if Ty Lee is a silly little girl.

"People are malleable. Once you know what gets to them. We've tried most things, but Zuko's idea of using you is quite clever," Lin explains and Ty Lee hates this being referred to as her being used again.

"I'm competent and I know her well. At least I think I do."

"Yes," Lin says, clearly realizing that Ty Lee refuses to have anyone mention the fact that they think Azula's physical attraction to her is going to work some kind of hormonal wonder.

That is not Azula.

Ty Lee may not be sure who Azula is anymore, and she may have felt odd when she saw the princess and realized how little she remembered of her face, but she knows that arousing her is not going to do anything.

In fact, nothing is going to do anything.

After breakfast, Ty Lee is guided, again, by guards to Azula's cell. Ty Lee wonders if they do not trust Azula or do not trust Ty Lee. Perhaps a healthy mixture of both.

"Hello, Ty Lee," Azula breathes, a soft sigh. "I would like you to tell the three doctors outside to stop watching us."

"I ─ I guess I can do that," Ty Lee says quietly as she turns to look at the stunned professionals playing the audience.

She then realizes that she has slipped up and looked too flexible. Ty Lee sighs and steels herself for turning this conversation the direction she wants it to go into.

"I do not want to talk to you. Have I ever spoken about my private business to anyone? No. No, I haven't," Azula says with a sigh. "Are you the type of therapist who likes to be sweet and soak me up like a sponge, or the type who wants to push me until perhaps I just burst with a revelation."

Ty Lee rubs her neck. "I'm the type who wants to be here less than you do. You don't have to do anything if you don't want to. I get paid either way."

Azula smirks and chuckles at that. Ty Lee is so sweetly naive, thinking that Azula cannot tell that she is curious. And, how could she not be? Azula is very curious about Ty Lee as well.

She rubs her elbow and studies her therapist from her own bed.

The cell is pretty, and well decorated, but she can't turn any direction without seeing the symbols of her imprisonment. This room is a cage masquerading as a luxury hotel.

"Why haven't you burned your way out?" Ty Lee asks, curious as she sees the wooden wall behind Azula. "Are they actually able to restrain you?"

Ty Lee has so much trouble believing that, it almost makes her laugh.

Azula frowns and is silent for some time. Ty Lee wants to ask and prod, but she was taught to remain silent, and so she does.

"Please leave. Maybe I'll talk to you this evening if you make it a decent date. You know, wine, dinner?" Azula is clearly hiding her thoughts by stating that. "I'm not kidding. I can tell that it's what they want from you, isn't it? So, if they're going to try to use my alluring old flame against me, they might as well spring for a date night, don't you think?"

Ty Lee stays quiet for a moment. "I haven't been on a date in a while."

She shrugs and leaves, lamenting the fact that it took less than five minutes for Azula to push her away with such sweet ease.

"You asked her about her bending, didn't you?" asks Lin as Ty Lee sits down and rubs her temples.

"Did...?" The jolt going through Ty Lee makes her want to scream.

"No. She just stopped, and never started again. We tried to figure her out, but it went as well as you would expect." They are silent, and uncomfortably so. "For your first time, it wasn't that bad. And if she wants her date, she will get it."

Ty Lee just runs her hands through her hair and wishes that this were over already.

This only hurts when Ty Lee laughs. None of her dates with Azula have ever gone well, but this is a new level of insanity that she is partaking in.

Well, she supposes she is in the right place to have a nervous breakdown.

She holds a bottle of wine in her hand, completely baffled as to how this is even going to work out, and what they could possibly expect from her. Yet, Ty Lee yet again spent ages in front of the mirror and relentlessly digging through her suitcases in hopes of finding the perfect outfit. And she looks great. The uniforms and her business casual attire definitely are not as attractive as her clothes now.

Azula, however, looks sexy. Agni, and Ty Lee is supposed to be the one seducing her.

"You look..." Less like a mental patient.

"I look fantastic, and way out of your league," Azula says calmly as she sits at the table.

The princess manages to ignore the shackles on her feet, making sure that she does not run. They are on a lovely sun porch and cricket-locusts are happily singing outside in the dark bluish night.

Ty Lee sets down the wine, hopes she does not have lipstick on her teeth, and sits down across from her old flame.