Author's Note, 12/22/2015: I normally compile my Tyzula oneshots into Sucker Love, but I think this one is strong enough to be a standalone. In addition, I had one million ideas for the Tyzula Advent Calendar 2015, but they never came to fruition. Upon reflection, this story is actually a blend of the prompts (Midwinter Madness, Ice Sculptures, Evergreen, Gifts from Iroh, Ribbons), and is met with some personal research about winter traditions and beliefs to help develop a central theme. I should mention that today is also the Winter Solstice, making the publication of this story relevant as well. I hope you enjoy, and have a warm, happy December. Thank you.

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Love Like Winter
By Nikkel
(c) to Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konetizko, and Nickelodeon

"For of sugar and ice, I am made.
She wanted love, and I taste of blood.
She bit my lip, and I taste of warmth."
- AFI

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Azula hated everything about the night. The way the air chilled her firebender skin, the way echoing voices would emerge without bodies, and the way she was disconnected like a severed limb from the sun were all the reasons she also despised celebrating the Winter Solstice.

Two guards flanked her as she was ushered through the palace gardens. They were not there for her protection, though. No. They would gladly throw her to the monsters that lurked in the shadows. They wanted the same thing people all over the world wanted from her: her royal blood spilled, and in the name of justice.

Azula wished she had been executed. She would have become a martyr for all things Fire Nation. Everyone would remember her as Azula, the Great Conqueror of Ba Sing Se, and not the princess-almost-Fire-Lord that went mad with power and nearly burned Caldera to the ground.

Zuko thought letting her live was merciful. Azula found it insufferable.

And celebrating a holiday that honored the shortest day of the year was like rejoicing for the crown she no longer had. Her life was as dark and empty as the night.

How she hated it.

"Fire Lord Zuko," the guard to her right spoke, coming to a stop and bowing. "Your sister, as requested."

"I'm capable of introducing myself, guard," Azula seethed alongside him with a glare. That was another thing. Since her "episode" (as everyone liked to tiptoe around), they all treated her as an invalid. That, of course, was far from the truth. Yes, she may have gotten out of control, but her intellect was still intact.

Zuko ignored her comment and nodded at the guards. "Thank you, Seng. She may walk freely now."

"Come join us, dear," Ursa welcomed with an extended hand. "Zuko was about to start the ceremony."

"No thanks, mother," Azula replied with a flippant shrug. "I'd rather not have to fight for your other knee."

Kiyi's eyes went wide as she clutched tighter at Ursa's robes. Ursa frowned, patting Kiyi's shoulder, and wondered if Azula would ever come around to her. She watched as she took her place alongside Ty Lee, the Kyoshi Warrior and former best friend, who had found Azula in the Earth Kingdom exactly one year ago. How that happened, Ursa still did not know.

Ty Lee glanced at her, eyebrows raised. Azula ignored her. Even if the girl had brought her back to the Fire Nation, Azula had nothing to say to her. She was still a traitor, and just as guilty at keeping her alive as Zuko was.

Zuko cleared his throat. "Now that everyone's here, I think it's time we start."

The Imperial Firebenders surrounding the family lit their palms with a soft glow like candlelight. One of them passed a small, wooden box to him. From it, he pulled out a knife, unsheathing the golden blade from its dragon-leather case, a sacred object touched only by the hands of the Fire Lord.

"I will do the cutting this year," he said, and pulled out a dark, silken cloth from the box as well. "Uncle? Mother? Would you catch the sprigs?"

"Of course, nephew," Iroh replied with a deep bow, but not to honor the Fire Lord. The spirits clung close to them on this holy night. Ursa did the same. They each took a side of the cloth, but it sagged with length between them. Iroh glanced around the small circle. "I believe we will need some help from a third person."

Again, Ty Lee glanced at Azula. Whatever the girl was expecting from her, Azula refused to give. She crossed her arms and made a pointed glower at Mai. During her absence, Mai had become her sister-in-law. She was never going to get rid of her, now.

"I wanna do it!" Kiyi exclaimed, jumping up and down with her hand raised. "Please, please, please, Zuzu?"

"His name is Zuko," Azula scolded. She was the only one allowed to call him that. She had come up with it, after all. It was her stroke of genius, not this pale-faced twerp that had somehow wormed her way into the family. She delighted in the little girl's frown.

"Sure," Zuko said to his youngest sister, nonplussed by Azula. "Maybe one day, you can do the cutting, too."

Kiyi gasped. "Really?"

"I don't see why not. I think it'd be fun to mix it up."

Azula's skin crawled. There Zuko went again, screwing up the well-established traditions of their forefathers. He truly was the worst Fire Lord the nation had ever come to know. Azula held back another insult as he climbed with the golden knife into the oak tree, but in truth it was mostly because she was hoping he would fall.

Azula had also always wondered what would happen if she set the tree on fire while he was in it.

"Ready?" he asked to the three below him. "Here it comes!"

"Yay!" Kiyi shouted as the dark green sprigs of mistletoe began to rain down from above. They landed, safe and sound, in the cloth. "Wow! There's so much of it!"

Ursa smiled. "That's wonderful. I think we'll have enough this year to hang in every doorway."

Iroh nodded in agreement. "Yes. I think everyone in the palace will have their fair share of luck with a lovely lady this year."

Ty Lee glanced at Azula a third time. Instead of ignoring her, Azula glared back. I don't need luck, her sharp, golden eyes seemed to say. I was born lucky.

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Somewhere in the Earth Kingdom, one year ago . . .

Like an animal hunted, Azula was on the run. The boreal forest was a blur of trees, streams, and rocks as she zigzagged across the pivoting, snow-dusted landscape, arrows whistling past her and shruikens thudding into the permafrost. When she felt heat on the back of her neck, she whipped around with a crackle of lightning, striking her hunter dead.

They would come close, but they could never catch her. She was too fast, too elusive, like the tiger-viper in the grass, escaping out of sight and then going for the kill when they came near.

It would not be the first (or the last) time she would leave ash and blood scattered across the white woods.

The stench of burning flesh seared her nose. She stood tall amongst the flaming carnage, her own tattered clothes signed and her hands black with soot, knowing she needed to keep moving. Someone always came to investigate at the echo of thunder, and she was the eye of the storm.

Azula clutched the stitch in her side. It was only when she felt liquid warmth between her fingers did she realize she was bleeding. Bad. Yet, she clenched her teeth and pushed on. Another human weakness.

"Pathetic," she could hear her father say, though he was miles upon miles away in the Fire Nation. But to Azula, it was as if he was hovering over her shoulder like a lecherous ghost. "You're going to die like an animal at this rate."

"No," she replied aloud.

"You're weak."

She collapsed against a tree trunk. The pain in her ribs was growing. She didn't remember getting hit. "Shut up."

"You're losing your touch."

"No lightning, today?" Zuko called, an insult from her memory. The Agni Kai. Sozin's Comet. Her coronation. "What's the matter?"

"Shut up!" Azula bellowed at them, but they were right. She was losing focus. Losing blood. It soaked through her shirt and coated her fingers like thick wax. Dizziness. "Shut up, shut up!"

"I love you, Azula." Her mother. No, no, no. Now there was no way of escaping. "I do."

But when she looked into the sunlight, it was not her mother towering over her. Azula squinted at the silhouette.

"Ty… Lee?"

And passed out.

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Several hours later. . .

A fire crackling startled Azula awake. She bolted up and cringed at the twinge of pain in her ribs. Her hand went to them. They were bandaged.

And Ty Lee sat across the fire, watching her with wide, protuberant brown eyes behind a mask of white make-up.

"You're…" Azula forced herself to gain a stronger voice. She hated the raw sound of it. "You're… real?"

"And you're awake," Ty Lee replied in a voice just above a whisper, as if she were still asleep. "How are you feeling?"

"How do you think I'm feeling?" Azula snarled back, sitting up straighter so she could properly glare at the girl. "Why don't you collect your bounty? You could sell my head and buy your own circus by now."

Ty Lee shook her head. "I don't want to. I healed you. You had an arrowhead in your ribs. Who were you running from?"

"Bounty hunters," Azula said, eyes darting quickly about their surroundings, as if these very hunters would spring upon them. None came. "Didn't you see the bodies?"

Ty Lee bit her lip and nodded. Azula was glad to see that there was still fear in her eyes. She relaxed. "That's how you found me, am I right?"

Ty Lee nodded without looking at her.

"Then I guess this is how it ends, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"'

"It's obviously your destiny to kill me," Azula said with a bored sigh. "For someone so in-tune with the Universe, you sure do fuck up a lot. Think about it, Ty Lee. You were the only person I ever allowed to get close to me. You were my right hand when I felled Ba Sing Se. And like the coup there, you betrayed me. And so, I ran, and you followed me, no different than those bounty hunters, but you wanted to finish the job yourself. So, here you are."

"No, that's not it at all, Azula."

"Then what is it?"

"I think I'm here to save you," Ty Lee replied, her hands clasping her shoulders. Her breath froze in midair. "Suki and the others thought I was crazy when I said I had a lead on you back in Omashu."

Azula's eyes slightly widened. She was mildly surprised, but moreover impressed. "You've been following me for that long?"

"I thought that if I could find you…" Ty Lee's gloved hands now fidgeted together. "I don't know. That we could work things out. And… Everyone in the Fire Nation wants you home."

"Everyone in the Fire Nation wants me dead. Everyone in the world wants me dead, so I may as well just face it. I'm a killer. I get it. So what the hell makes you think you're here to save me?"

"Because of the mistletoe."

Ty Lee pointed at the plant clutching at the oak branches above Azula's head, lush and green against the bare brown of the rest of the forest, persistent and immortal.

Azula barked a laugh. "You're not going to kill me because of a plant? And they say I'm the crazy one."

"It's a sign from the Universe. If it wasn't here, I…"

"You don't have the gall to kill me, Ty Lee," Azula snickered. "You cry every time you step on a bug."

"That might be true, but…"

"But what?"

"I could have walked away."

The coldness in her tone chilled Azula more than the winter night around her. She paused, selecting her words carefully. "You would have let me die?"

Ty Lee shrugged. "I don't really know. Maybe we're both lucky that we found each other under the mistletoe. The Universe works in mysterious ways."

"Perhaps," Azula replied. She tilted her head up at the mistletoe again. She was born lucky, yes, and the Universe saw to that in the moment she could have been killed.

But maybe, maybe, she was also lucky that it was Ty Lee of all people to find her and interpret the signs laid out by destiny.

After all, there was no one who could read the stars better.

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Present day

Zuko climbed down from the tree and re-sheathed the golden blade. "Well, that's all for this year's cutting. Ty Lee, do you have the ribbons?"

"Yep!" Ty Lee replied, and pulled out four rolls from her knapsack. "There's enough for everyone if we split up into twos."

"How ironic," Mai droned with thick sarcasm. "I'll go with anyone but Azula."

"That's okay," Ty Lee replied with a nonchalant smile. "I figured I would go with her anyways, unless Ursa or Zuko wants to?"

"I'd be delighted to be with Ty Lee," Azula piped in, her hand curling around her shoulder. Ty Lee's legs turned to jelly at the husk in her voice. It was something she hadn't heard in a very long time that made her feel like she was fourteen all over again.

"Then, I think it's settled," Zuko said with an affirmative nod at his uncle. "We'll take the east wing. Mom and Mai will take the south, Kiyi and Ikem will take the west, and Azula and Ty Lee will take the north."

With careful precision, Zuko divided the mistletoe sprigs into even clusters. When he dropped Azula's share into her hands, he frowned.

"Don't burn them."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Zuzu."

"I'm serious, Azula. You know that this is a sacred holiday."

"I'm aware. I just think it's ridiculous that we think this stuff is supposed to protect us against fire and lightning. We're firebenders for Sozin's sake."

"Then, maybe it's a metaphor. Maybe it's to protect us against ourselves."

Azula rolled her eyes and shoved the sprigs into her pocket. "Don't flatter yourself, Zuzu. It makes you sound dumber than you actually are."

Zuko sighed. No matter what he said or what he did, Azula would always find a way to insult him.

Azula turned to leave the garden, when two guards appeared to usher her out. Before she could demand her brother to send them away, her lip curled in frustration, Ty Lee stepped between them.

"I've got this, boys," she said with a playful smile. "Azula and I used to hang mistletoe around the palace every year. It's tradition."

The guards let them go, not knowing what Ty Lee had said was a lie. Azula raised a curious eyebrow. First, the girl saves her life. Then, she volunteers to be her partner, and now she… lies for her?

Once they were out of earshot of everyone else and the guards beneath the first archway, Azula grabbed Ty Lee and threw her against the wall.

"What are you playing at?" Azula demanded, her nails digging into Ty Lee's soft, curved shoulders.

"Nothing!" Ty Lee sputtered. "I swear!"

"Don't lie to me. You're up to something. Why else would you lie like that to the guards?"

"I didn't lie!"

"Of course you did. Not once did we ever hang mistletoe together."

Ty Lee paused and her eyes went wide. "You mean… You don't remember?"

"My memory is better than yours, I can tell you that much."

"Before your mom left, she made us decorate the palace every year," Ty Lee said in a low voice, hanging her head. Azula's grip slowly relaxed on her shoulders. "You hated it. I always had to keep you from burning things."

"And how did you do that?" Azula asked softly, genuinely curious.

"Well, after we hung the mistletoe, I said I would give you a present. Because it's the Winter Solstice."

Narrowed eyes. Suspicious again. "Like why? And why don't I remember this?"

"I don't know," Ty Lee shrugged. "Maybe it's because of your… condition? But maybe this will help jog your memory."

Ty leaned in and kissed her.

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94 AG

Ty Lee reached up as high as she could to pin the mistletoe into place, her tongue sticking out of her mouth in severe concentration, balancing precariously on top of a ladder that no nine year old should be standing on. She gasped as the ladder suddenly wobbled underneath her, threatening to toss her to the marble floor. She stabbed her thumb with the pin.

"Azula!" she whimpered at the Princess below. "Stop!"

"How do you keep your balance like that?" Azula sneered with narrowed eyes. "Are you part poodle-monkey? That isn't natural."

"Of course it's natural!" Ty Lee shrilled back. "Just because you can't do it…"

"But I want to know. Teach me."

"Right now?"

"Maybe," Azula said with a shrug and smirk, a sign that Ty Lee had learned that she was no longer interested in taunting her about her abilities. She resumed trying to pin the mistletoe into place while Azula strolled underneath the ladder without a second thought.

"My mommy says you're gonna get bad luck if you do that," Ty Lee said.

"Then it's a good thing I was born lucky."

Warnings and danger rolled off Azula slicker than a turtleduck's back. Ty Lee couldn't help but wonder how in the world the Universe hadn't punished her for all of the wrongs she did. Maybe it was because of her royal blood? As new money, Ty Lee wasn't sure.

Finally, though, she managed to pin the mistletoe into place. She looked to Azula. "Okay, is it centered?"

"No," Azula replied without glancing at the mistletoe. She had taken a sudden interest in burning the tips of a decorated evergreen tree in the corner. "It needs to go to the left."

And so, Ty Lee moved it two inches to the left, straining to reach on her tiptoes. "How's that?"

Azula had now taken an interest in the presents laden beneath the tree. Uncle Iroh had gifted them to the palace until he returned from Ba Sing Se. None of them were labeled for the Princess, but that didn't matter. Without turning around, Azula replied, "It needs to go to the right."

Ty Lee huffed, but did as she was told. "And that?"

"To the left," Azula replied, waving her off with a hand as she picked up a present and shook it.

"Azula!" Ty Lee whined. "You're not even looking!"

"Of course I am," Azula lied, turning around and opening the present, but still not looking at her friend. She tossed the silver bow over her shoulder and opened the box, revealing a penguin-sledding themed mug. She scoffed, set it back in the box, and dropped it on the ground without a second thought, ignoring the tinkling ceramic. Ty Lee cleared her throat to again try and grab her attention, and finally she looked. Azula sighed. "I thought I told you to move it to the right?"

"I already did that!"

"Clearly not." Azula dismissed her and returned to poking at the presents under the tree. "I'll let you know when it's perfect."

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Present day

Warm firelight. Bright stars. A red ribbon, soft as silk, tied to the emerald mistletoe by deft, nimble fingers. A flirtatious smile challenged with an eye roll. An urge to burn something. And then, soft lips, tasting sweet…

Azula pulled back. Her mind screamed that Ty Lee couldn't be trusted, but something deep in her chest… whispered something else.

"Is that why you brought me back?" Azula snapped like a northern wind. "So we could be… Whatever we were before?"

Ty Lee's face hardened. Gone was the tenderness in her sparkling brown eyes and voice – just like Azula had anticipated. The face of a traitor.

"I brought you back because you were dying. I wasn't going to leave you."

"And yet, you had that option."

"You think I had a choice?" Ty Lee replied, voice escalating in frustration. Her hands curled into fists as she stepped away from the wall. "Because the Universe chose you. I don't know how and I don't know why the stars would set me up to be with some mean, narcissistic, spoiled control freak of a lover, but no matter what I do or who I fuck, it's your face that's always there! Or, you cross my mind at the dumbest times, and I know that's the one stupid, stupid, stupid reason I can never fit in with Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors, because I find that everything always leads back to you!"

Ty Lee paused, her rant echoing in the hollow corridor. Azula awaited her with a calculative gaze. Ty Lee couldn't fight the tears from streaming down her cheeks, but she would do everything she could to fight Azula and the Universe.

Azula raised a tentative brow. "You've thought a lot about this, haven't you?"

"Like I said, the Universe didn't give me a choice," Ty Lee said, biting off her last word, and then sighing in defeat.

"I think you've put a lot of faith in something that can't be proven."

"And just what am I supposed to believe, Azula?"

"You want to know something?"

"What?"

"When I was wandering through the Forgetful Valley, I learned that there was only one way to get out."

Ty Lee blinked, listening.

"I had to give up on fate. The Universe told me that I was destined to be the Fire Lord. The Universe lied."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"I also had to give up the idea that I was born lucky. I realized that when you found me in the Earth Kingdom. I wasn't born lucky, but I was lucky to… have you." Azula pulled out the mistletoe sprigs from her pocket and held them out in her open palm. "If it was anyone else that found me, I know they wouldn't have hesitated to kill me. But it was you. A part of me still wishes it had been someone else so I wouldn't have to deal with all of… this."

She gestured at the Winter Solstice tree decorated with lights and ornaments. Ty Lee knew she wasn't talking about the holiday itself, but the family values it curtailed. And Ty Lee had to admit, that as much as she adored the merry candor and peppermint chocolates, she had yet to face her own family. She was visiting her sisters less and less as the years went on…

Azula fist clenched over the sprigs. "I hate the Winter Solstice."

"No!" Ty Lee cried, lunging forward, clasping her hands over Azula's. They were warm with potential flame. "I know you hate them, but please, Azula, don't do that. There are plenty of other things to burn, but not this."

"And why not?"

"Because it saved us."

Azula stared at her, waiting for a deeper explanation, but none came. She shouldn't have expected so much, as this was Ty Lee, after all. Finally, the heat in her hand subsided.

"Fine. But you hang them up."

"Of course. You always made me do that part, anyways."

"And what did I do?"

Ty Lee cringed. "You, uh… Well, you said a lot of mean things and you wouldn't let me down from the ladder until it was absolutely-100%-princess-approved-perfect."

Azula's skeptical look vanished. "Seems accurate."

A ladder waiting for them sat propped against the wall. Ty Lee pulled it towards her and set it up in the center of the archway. Azula watched in silence as Ty Lee's fingers tied the red ribbon into a knot around the mistletoe sprig. Ty Lee ascended the ladder, her slender arms reaching up to the next rung, pink skirt rustling in the cool breeze, braid swaying. Her upper body turned ever-so-slightly to pin the ribbon into the wood, and at that very moment, she was a moon-splashed silhouette against a winter sky.

"How does it look?" Ty Lee asked.

"Perfect."

Ty Lee cocked her head. To Azula, nothing was ever perfect on the first try. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Azula replied, and instead of walking underneath the ladder as she would have done in her childhood, she walked underneath the mistletoe. Ty Lee descended the ladder, and now they stood before each other. There was no mistaking the devilish gleam in Azula's eyes. "Now, what was it that you used to do?"

Ty Lee could throw her arms around her and squeal with delight, but instead, she leaned in and crushed her lips against Azula's. She grabbed her closer and kissed her with far more ferocity than she ever had in their teenage years. Only here, with Ty Lee's warmth chasing away the winter chill and stoking the flames in her chest, could she feel immortality on the longest night of the year.