Starry Eyed

MissHarloweGold

You were licking your lips
and your lipstick shining.
I was dying just to ask for a taste.
We were lying together in a silver lining
by the light of the moon.
"Hot Summer Night" ─ Meatloaf

Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring.

Azula repeats that over and over in her head but it does not do her any good. She knows that no one can tell her to not stare, save for perhaps her father, but he would be oblivious as could be. But Azula is beginning to deeply regret agreeing to leave the cold, dark beach with Ty Lee.

Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring.

Ty Lee is licking her lips and her light pink lip paint that has been smudging on the corner of her lip is shining. Azula thinks that is quite an attractive awful habit, and she did try to emulate it, which was the most ridiculous idea of her life.

"Do you remember the way back?" Ty Lee suddenly asks as she steps gracefully up onto a slippery rock.

Azula's stare shifts from desire to scrutiny. "I was following you. You were escorting me home. You're terrible at this."

"Hehe. Escorting." Ty Lee blushes lightly.

"What is funny about your failure to get me to Lo and Li's house before I am devoured by some type of sand shark?" Azula snarls and Ty Lee swallows nervously.

"Just escorting. It's a..." Ty Lee's bright natural smile disappears. Yeah, Azula has no idea what that is and she is going to shut up now before she further embarrasses herself in front of the beautiful, amazing, perfect, gorgeous princess who Ty Lee was staring at longingly instead of paying attention to the way back from this deserted stretch of sand and rock.

Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring.

"Where did Mai go, anyway?" Azula snaps, her nostrils flaring as she thinks about her brother and his horrid girlfriend slinking off together as soon as the mandatory friendship events ended.

"With Zuko. To have sex on a beach which is the most romantic thing ever." Ty Lee nods once at Azula.

"That sounds terrible. Who would enjoy that?" Azula picks sand out from under her nail.

"I was going to say Mai, but. . . no. I dunno. I think it's sweet," Ty Lee says, grinning and batting her bright eyes. "Or at least extremely sexy."

They both look at each other wordlessly. Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring.

Azula sighs and runs her fingertip along another one of the weathered boulders before sitting down on it. "The sun is moments away from rising. We will wait here."

Ty Lee laughs and Azula nearly just snaps. She refuses to be. . .

"They're going to think things." Ty Lee smiles too hard. It takes Azula two swift seconds to realize what Ty Lee means by that.

"Of course they won't," Azula lies, seizing her opportunity and insisting to herself not to let go. "Why would anyone think that about us, anyway?"

Ty Lee sits down on the sand below Azula, her legs slightly open as she looks up with wide eyes that shimmer in the moonlight. Her seductive smirk makes Azula feel a moderately uncomfortable burning sensation that is. . . nerves. Other people get anxious or think they will do the wrong thing; Princess Azula never does the wrong thing and therefore has no reason to feel those butterflies in her stomach.

"I don't know why they wouldn't," Ty Lee chimes. "You're amazingly pretty, I'm pretty too and we're pretty together and why wouldn't we. . .?"

Ty Lee wants to lie down and bury herself in the sand at Azula's slightly curled lip. Nope, nope, that is not a good expression. Ty Lee does not like that expression and she should not have said that.

"I'm far better than Mai and Zuko. Or you and whatever boys you most certainly were with at that party." Azula is certain of that.

Ty Lee is absentmindedly taking fistfuls of the cooling sand to bury herself alive. That would be so much more preferable to her than this.

"I didn't. . ." Ty Lee purses her lips because she has run out of good words. Or maybe she has never known them in the first place. "I get that kinda thing but you do too. You just never smile at people when they check you out or something like that. You kinda have this. . . No, no, I mean, you are amazing and. . . I'm really glad we left and. . ."

"And?"

"And we didn't. . ." Ty Lee contemplates just stuffing the sand into her mouth. It would be quicker. "Wow, I feel really sleepy! Like when I've been crying but then somebody makes me feel better and I just fall asleep and tomorrow will be way better!"

"Tomorrow being better than tonight will not be a very difficult feat." Azula shrugs and internally congratulates herself on remaining as cold, indifferent and mocking as she was at that pathetic excuse for a bonfire. "Now, what is it you thought I would do?"

"Nothing that you. . ." Ty Lee scratches her neck and the sand she had gathered tumbles down her shoulder, making her shiver.

Azula thinks as quickly as she can about if she should brush it off, because it would be the absolute perfect excuse to do that. Ty Lee is trying really hard to think about how to express that she maybe loves Azula as more than a friend, and the princess reaches out her hand too quickly.

Oh, she just botched gently brushing sand off of Ty Lee's shoulder. She just stabbed her. Stabbed her.

Ty Lee winces and then blinks way too many times in befuddlement. "Did I do something?"

You didn't do something. "Of course not."

"Do you want to go back to the house before anybody thinks we're were having sex with each other?" Ty Lee asks quietly.

"No." Azula looks up at the sky and is relieved to see a slight pink haze of approaching sunrise over the horizon. "Of course, if you think that would tarnish your reputation or ruin your chances of having ten boyfriends. . ." Oh, perfectly snide.

"No!" Ty Lee then clamps her hand over her mouth before taking a deep breath and plunging into this head on. This situation can't get much worse. "It would do the opposite of tarnish my reputation for everyone to think you had sex with me tonight!"

Azula cocks an eyebrow. "Most people aren't lining up to openly claim to sleep with the Fire Lord's daughter."

"Do you understand how worth it that execution would be?" Ty Lee exclaims, her hands on either side of her face.

"Of course it would be," Azula replies, glad that shadows refuse to reveal her flushed cheeks. "There are worse reasons to die."

They meet eyes. Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring.

"I'm sorry tonight didn't go well for you. I was rooting for you and that boy."

"You're lying. You are pathetically lying." Azula's eyes flash. "Did you intentionally sabotage me so that you could pretend to be better than me in some way?"

Ty Lee screams softly without meaning to. "Oh Agni, of course not! I didn't sabotage you. I just wanted to show you how it really didn't mean anything!"

Azula analyzes Ty Lee. "Why are you gathering that sand?"

"Because. . ." Ty Lee lunges forward and kisses Azula on the lips and totally knows that dying would be so worth it.

Azula's first kiss was the worst kiss. It felt uncomfortable and quick and wet and too forced. But this makes her feel very warm despite the cold, dark night. It floods through her from head to toe as Ty Lee clings as long as she can in fear of the retribution she might suffer once the dream kiss breaks.

They pull away and Ty Lee swallows. Ty Lee wants to say so many things about how she has loved Azula for forever, how she wants more, how everything went so awry. Azula has the impulse to tell Ty Lee that she was not envious, but jealous of anyone else touching Ty Lee in the way that she has not.

But they just meet eyes again, this time somehow more uncomfortable.

Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring.

"Stop staring and do that again immediately," Azula finally snaps, the words easier to say than the ones she wants to express.

Ty Lee could not be happier to oblige.

Notes: Thank you for reading. I'm currently working on two longer fics based on Smoke and Shadow, but this oneshot randomly hit me.