A/N: Some Quick Facts About This Fic
Chapters: 7
Pairing: Azula x Ty Lee
Rated: M for sexual content, sexual themes, strong violent references and moderate language.
Notes: It's Tyzula Week, y'all. I'm psyched. I have another entry too, since I wrote two and couldn't decide which one I liked better. The other is War of the [Tea] Roses, is a Modern AU, and has the opposite prompts.

Hybristophilia

You know, at one time, I used to break into pet shops to liberate the canaries. But I decided that was an idea way before its time. Zoos are full, prisons are overflowing... oh my, how the world still dearly loves a cage.
- Harold and Maude -

Chapter One: and lo

I. Luck

Ty Lee has been subjected to a multitude of invasive questions lately. She knows why people are asking, and she can pinpoint exactly when they started, but she is not quite sure what they are getting out of it. Is there something particularly scandalous about her relationship?

Okay, well, other than the fact that it has literally been called a scandal by the horrific expose and subsequent disaster when people found out.

But right now she is trying not to think about any of that. Right now she has just woken up and is in that carefree moment between dreams and life, and last night, she dreamt of collecting seashells on a beach, with waves crashing against the shore.

It was a world in which she had escaped her troubles, and she was not alone there, not for a moment.

Another shade of sunlight strikes against her retinas like an invasion. It is filtered by misty morning clouds, and she sighs, unwilling to get out of bed despite the foul taste in her mouth. She is finding it a bit difficult to remain optimistic while facing what she knows is coming today.

The invasive questions have multiplied nonstop. But now she has to answer them, and answer them asked by world leaders. And her friends.

It probably is her fault. She should probably take the blame, even though she doesn't want to. And, even if it is the last thing she wants to do, she has to face the music.

Ty Lee groans before forcing herself to sit up and brave the world, regardless of her scandal. The questions frustrate her when they come from the outside, but they consume her when they jab at her from within.

The situation is just... complicated.

[X]

Mai waits for Ty Lee outside of the gold and red doors to the Hall of Justice. She toys with her sleeves as she stands there, watching the public. The attendees to the trial most certainly are not just dignitaries and important world leaders; they look like the same type of people who look for every slip up Zuko makes, or who like to gawk at burning buildings.

"Do I look okay?" Ty Lee asks brightly and Mai halfheartedly looks her up and down.

"Are you going for sexy or innocent child? Because you're doing both and it's horrible," Mai comments flatly and Ty Lee pouts, examining her body and light pink outfit self-consciously. "You look like you're either starting your first day at preschool or a brothel."

"I get it. You only needed to say it once!" Ty Lee snaps and then covers her mouth with her hand. She waits for two breathless seconds before she sees that the public have not noticed. She must be lucky today.

Mai just sighs. "I'm doing you a favor. You got yourself in a mess and most people would just let you hang for it."

"You don't think they'll really...?" Ty Lee's eyes widen.

Mai almost says that it's a figure of speech before replying, "If you're lucky, you won't be executed." She turns to start walking inside. "Oh, and listen to me too. Listen to everything I say and you won't need luck."

Ty Lee wants to frown or snap at Mai, but she cannot afford to burn anymore bridges.

She has been doing too much of that lately.

[X]

Meanwhile, Azula sits in a dimly lit cell, waiting for this ridiculous ordeal to be over. A verdict, of course, and her fate is in the hands of a girl she would not trust to water her plants while she was out of town. She has no trial; she already had one and received exile years ago.

And, as she tries to keep herself occupied in the nauseating solitude, of all people, her brother shows up at her barred door.

"Good luck," Zuko says softly.

Azula scoffs, not meeting his eyes. She looks very sophisticated, very unlike a prisoner. Her lips are a little bit sunburned but not chapped to the point of looking pitiful. She is well dressed because she demanded that she be, giving her status as a political prisoner. Her hair is the one thing that makes Zuko uncomfortable; it is wavy because it has recently been unbraided.

"I don't need that," Azula says coldly and Zuko wishes she would look at him. "I guess our father was so wrong, huh? I'd like to revise his words: you were lucky to get all of your dreams, and I'll be lucky if I'm not executed in two weeks for the crime of being born."

Zuko swallows.

He lingers there for a moment, she says nothing more, and he can think of nothing more to say.

[X]

Ty Lee does not want to recognize anyone in the audience, but of course she does. In front of her are people both important and unimportant, and they all want to know all about her treason scandal. But while many of them may have interest solely in the legal mishap, Ty Lee knows that indubitably, most of them just want to hear the lascivious details.

Zuko is sitting with representatives from the other three nations. They are across the room, and there are other streaks of four colors in different shades, like a watercolor painting that is super interested in Ty Lee's sex mistakes.

Mai is sitting beside Ty Lee, as well as a woman hired to control the public relations nightmare and an older woman who worked at the island who promised to vouch for Ty Lee and help back up any of her claims during this pathetic excuse for a hearing.

It isn't a hearing. . . it's a debacle.

It isn't in the interest of the Four Nations. . . it's in the interest of the hungry public.

It isn't a formal event. . . it's a circus.

She turns to Mai as the room begins to quiet. Swallowing, Ty Lee begins to panic and forget anything she was planning on saying. This is bad. Mai glances over her and sees that this is not going to get much better, and so she seizes control of the room with an oddly apathetic ease.

Mai clears her throat and announces unenthusiastically, "Ty Lee will answer your needlessly invasive questions about the apparently very interesting sex scandal now."

Ty Lee closes her eyes for a moment before the circus begins.

The first delegate is from the Water Tribes, and Ty Lee does not recognize him. He asks a very logical question and Ty Lee conceals her sigh of relief.

"When did it start?"

Ty Lee takes a deep breath, and tries to think back to the beginning.