Mendacity

Azula stands at the Fire Sage altar and it is more than perfect.

The wedding has been choreographed down to the last detail, mostly due to her obsession with control and the power rush that it gave her. Well, while Ty Lee was not getting overly involved in the ordeal.

But here they are at last, regardless of any struggles in setting up the wedding.

Azula is waiting to take this step into the unknown, and, if she were being honest, she would say that she is not sure if she is ready or not.

But is anyone?

lie four: theft

"I don't know what happened to your necklace," Azula says calmly and Ty Lee really wants to believe her. Ty Lee is certain anybody who didn't know Azula so personally would believe her. "You probably misplaced it. You aren't exactly very aware of anything but your own reflection and the lip paint in your pockets."

Ty Lee smiles instead of frowns. She laughs and pretends that Azula's words don't hurt at all.

"My mom said I had to wear it because my boyfriend got it for me," Ty Lee explains. "It was ugly anyway."

Azula turns up a palm. "Then I misunderstand your problem. Necklaces from a boyfriend are like chains claiming that you belong to him. It's so distasteful."

Ty Lee smiles and nods.

She is ninety-nine percent certain that the necklace is in Azula's shirt.

lie five: wine

The bouncer to the bar looks extremely unimpressed and uninfluenced by the girls begging to go inside. Not quite begging; Azula is demanding it ferociously and getting increasingly icier and angrier as the man turns them down.

Ty Lee has been begging and begging that once they get turned loose that they try some kind of weird wine made from a strange rare plant. They only sell it in this bar. And this bar is refusing to let three young teenage girls inside.

"Do you really want the Fire Lord to know you interfered with this mission?" Azula at last asks, glancing over her shoulder at Ty Lee and her wide, pleading eyes.

"What mission?" the bouncer inquires skeptically, cocking an eyebrow.

"One that you have no need to know about," Azula snaps. "It is extremely important Fire Nation business that we investigate the bar personally. He doesn't trust any eyes but ours. You know we're the people who conquered Ba Sing Se, don't you?"

The bouncer squints, shifts his weight between his feet and decides not to risk it.

He lets them inside. Ty Lee wraps her arms around Azula in a hug that feels like an attack the minute they get inside.

"That was amazing! I love you, I love you!" Ty Lee kisses Azula on the cheek and the princess tries to hide her blush.

lie six: roses

"I'm not allergic to roses. That's absurd," Azula insists coldly and even Zuko seems to believe her. "I think the gift is acceptable."

Ty Lee doesn't need a thank you. Because Azula is completely allergic to roses and is still holding them. She isn't even rubbing in the fact that Ty Lee forgot.

And that is the greatest anniversary gift of them all.

It's fun to be married to a gorgeous liar.

lie seven: ugly

"Do you think I'm pretty?" Ty Lee asks and Azula rolls her eyes.

"Why do you keep asking? You know that I have no desire to stroke your ego or lie to you," Azula says, fanning herself halfheartedly with her playbill. They are on Ember Island and Ty Lee has been so insecure for someone who managed to gather a menagerie of creeps trying to get into her pants.

"Do you think I'm pretty, though. Not if I'm pretty or not. Do you think so? Because I want you to think I'm pretty and I don't care about those guys or anybody else," Ty Lee says quickly in a high pitched tone.

Azula stares at her for a moment. It would feel so good to crush Ty Lee's soul. It would. But, for some reason, something inside of Azula refuses to let her take that pleasure.

"Yes. I think you're pretty."

She is telling the truth, and Ty Lee smiles to herself.

It is the reception. A hot reception on this abysmal beach, but Azula is sweating more from nerves as she speaks than the weather.

Azula finishes her speech, even if it is not much of a speech. It is just a confession, and nothing more. That, everyone in the audience knows, is so very much more powerful than any other beautiful words that Azula could weave.

Ty Lee smiles and meets Azula's gaze.

And she mouths, I love you forever.

THE END