::The Black Swan Wears Blue::

::Variation 01: Blizzard::

Ty Lee met Azula for the first time when they were snowed in inside the studio.

She was pacing and taking her light pink mittens off and on again and again nervously. It was once she gave up on going out into the blizzard that she heard vaguely familiar piano music. It wasn't anything classical; it was the opposite. Some piano rendition of a pop song that felt like a memory from a dream.

Quietly, Ty Lee crept towards the small room with nothing in it but a bent barre and unused piano with three broken keys. An outdated stereo was playing; the music was coming from it. Ty Lee peered in further and suddenly she heard feet against the floor.

"Can I help you?" coldly asked the prettiest voice Ty Lee had ever heard.

"Nope. No, I was just – the blizzard – and the song – and I'm sorry for disturbing you," Ty Lee squeaked, her eyes wide with terror. She backed away but a cold hand with fake nails grabbed her and tugged her inside. Ty Lee was either going to die or be kissed… or so she thought.

"You seem to be doing nothing with yourself and we're all stuck in here until the storm passes. Do my acquaintance's part," the girl said sharply. Ty Lee was agape and frozen. "Unless you can't dance. You can dance, can't you?"

"Yes," Ty Lee said a few moments too late. "Yes, I can dance."

She suddenly noted the word acquaintance. It was an odd way to describe a person, particularly by a girl who looked about her age.

"Just stand there for a moment," the girl ordered and Ty Lee nodded too many times.

Ty Lee started over the music with her cold, trembling hands and sat down on the inside of the snow-coated window. The girl began and time stood still. Her every pirouette looked like a whirlwind of fire, a blur of blue that made Ty Lee feel warm in this icy room.

"It was beautiful," Ty Lee said before realizing the girl was expecting her to have learned that. Well, fuck. "Can you… do it more slowly?"

The girl cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe."

"What's your name?" Ty Lee asked and the girl looked at her as if it were a ridiculous question.

"I'm Azula. I don't care who you are," she said and Ty Lee grimaced. Not the best introduction. "Now pay attention this time."

Ty Lee did. She memorized it within one more show and she spent her time waiting for the plows to come by helping Azula practice her beautiful dance. Ty Lee was good; she had been told she was for her entire life.

But Azula was a prodigy.

There was no other word for it.

Ty Lee bolted like an idiot the minute an assistant instructor called out that the parking lot was escapable now. She almost reached the frosted door before she saw the girl's reflection in it. Ty Lee's heart pounded with excitement before she turned around and saw she was just holding Ty Lee's bright pink, ruffled dance bag.

"You forgot this," Azula said and Ty Lee swallowed as she grabbed it.

"I'm Ty Lee. I know you don't care. But I'm Ty Lee."

Ty Lee resumed her horrified running until she reached her car.