A/N: Some Quick Facts About This Fic:
Quick Note: This fic completely stands alone but it is the prequel/sequel to Midwinter Madness and the main story for a Universe of oneshots and short little fics I've written that all can be found on my profile if you're curious.
Chapters: 48.
Pairing(s): Azula x Ty Lee. MaixOzai, ZukoxKatara, UrsaxIroh, AzulonxIlah, TophxAang, and a few other : T for strong suggestive themes, drugs and alcohol, moderate language and mature humor.
Notes: This fic consists of two stories, both the prequel (The Rite of Spring) and the sequel (Springtime in the Rockies) told in parallel. Each gets half of the chapter. When I asked if people wanted a prequel or a sequel to Midwinter Madness, I received an equal response and figured I would simply make both of them. A note from two-years-in-the-future-me editing this chapter is that the plot device of the prequel as the first half of the chapter and the sequel as the second half of the chapter works quite well, which surprised me. Anyway, thank you for clicking and I hope you enjoy the show.

SPRING FEVER

"Bleeding ulcers run in my family: We give them to each other."
-Lois McMaster Bujold-

Prologue: Queen of the Girl Scouts

Ty Lee never is lying when she says she fell in love with Azula the moment she met her.

She did not know it at the time, of course. That is not the type of thing that ever occurred to a boy crazy eight-year-old with a missing front tooth. Yet, when Ty Lee looks back on those days, at the old photographs or the silly reminders, she does realize how something in her core knew.

They were, are and always will be soulmates.

Azula rolls her eyes whenever Ty Lee poses that theory and tells her that soulmates are as real as reiki, chi and auras. Ty Lee is fairly certain that those things are all real and that Azula is just blind to them.

That moment Ty Lee so fondly remembers happened at Girl Scouts.

They were Juniors, fresh into fourth grade, and a new girl had moved into town. It was really exciting when Ty Lee saw that she lived in the same gated neighborhood, and Ty Lee spied on her for the entire day – but she never got a chance to ask her to be friends. The girl was going to Diamonte High, private school, and Ty Lee was going to the quite nice public school in her district, so it did not seem likely they would see each other very much.

But there she was, being nudged into the meeting by her mother. Her mom looked nice, she looked really pretty and Ty Lee was thrilled to see her.

"Hi," Ty Lee instantly said, skipping over to the girl who had finally relented to her mother's attempts to force her through the door. Azula stared. "I'm Ty Lee and you live next door! Next door to me I mean!"

"I know. I saw you watching me from your yard," Azula said in a cold tone that made her sound like a grown-up. Ty Lee wasn't used to that and had never heard another kid talk like it. "I didn't think it was too creepy. I'm used to people staring at me."

Ty Lee smiled. "You've got confidence!"

Azula's golden eyes glinted with an excitement a young Ty Lee didn't understand.

"You really think so?" she said. "How nice of you. If you were playing pretend superheroes, would you want to be the sidekick or the hero?"

Ty Lee hmms with her big Bambi eyes squinted. "Sidekick!"

"Sit next to me," orders Azula.

It is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

THE RITE OF SPRING

The prettiest in crowd that you had ever seen
Ribbons in our hair and our eyes gleamed mean
A freshmen generation of degenerate beauty queens
And you know something?
They were the only friends I ever had
"This is What Makes Us Girls" – Lana Del Rey

Chapter One: Blue Crush

On the last day of winter break before Azula and Ty Lee return to the sophomore year, they play Mortal Kombat in Azula's closet. It is not for clothes; it is where she conceals her entertainment system that feels like a meticulously organized movie theatre. It, by her father's demand, hides in her huge closet so she can close the doors and no one will know she even looks at televisions.

He would rather people see the gigantic trophy case. She has won national debates. Taken every crown in her line of sight in pageants. The volleyball ones are hidden in the back since she quit after getting… a little too competitive. The property damage was unpleasant Her real talents, however, are the odd combination of ballet and martial arts. They both, to her, feel the same, even if to the untrained eye they seem mismatched. She flies in both of them, she is perfect at both of them, she steals lead roles and wins championships.

Azula hates every single trophy in that case, because the more she gets, the more she craves. The more competitions she conquers, the more she sees that need conquering. It is an obsession with victory that makes most people cringe and bitch about her greed. They are all just jealous.

"Why did you kill me again? Let me win just once!" Ty Lee screams, interrupting Azula's wandering thoughts of her disdain. She quiets her voice, clears her throat, and softly adds, "Please."

"I wasn't even trying. You're pathetic at this," Azula says smugly and Ty Lee knocks the controller out of her hand. "It is much better to actually fight like that."

"Rip people's spines out?" Ty Lee asks innocently.

"I wish," Azula says dreamily and Ty Lee giggles her too-pretty giggle. "I will have to settle for watching them cry hysterically when I win."

Ty Lee presses the start button on her controller as hard as she can and selects her same character yet again. Azula chooses hers and, with a small smirk, allows the next round to begin. She does not let Ty Lee win, after five seconds considering whether she should or not.

She snaps her nail as the game announces her victory, curses, stands up and goes to find her nail glue. Ty Lee hastily turns off the SNES and the television, clicking the closet doors shut behind her with the hope of not facing that game ever again for as long as she lives.

Uninvited, she enters Azula's glamorous, spotless bathroom that she does not have to share with six other equally-appearance-obsessed teenage girls. Ty Lee is pretty stunned by how well her best friend can glue a nail back on, just like she is about Azula's handwriting and eyeliner and other infinite precision.

"Is your nail okay?" Ty Lee chimes.

"I've taken care of it. Of course it is okay," Azula replies, screwing on the small cap of the glue. "How's your wimpy boyfriend?"

"He's not wimpy. He plays football," Ty Lee protests fiercely and Azula scoffs.

"That does not make him less wimpy. He's not your type. You like dangerous, powerful, sexy people who'll one moment be punching some guy hitting on you and the next moment be buying flowers," Azula purrs and Ty Lee hates to admit how much that idea turns her on.

"You know me so well!" Ty Lee says brightly, hugging Azula tightly for a few breathless seconds. "What else do you wanna do?"

"I'm bored and don't want to waste my energy planning something else. Make me an offer," Azula says, pressing on her nail one more time before striding out of the bathroom.

Ty Lee cannot handle that much pressure, but she suggests, "We could go out of the city to the desert or something."

"And who will drive us?" Azula rolls her eyes.

"We could go shopping." Ty Lee grins at her own suggestion.

Azula would rather die than go shopping with Ty Lee alone. Mai acts as a fantastic buffer during trips to the mall, and Mai has been forced to go to ski camp in Oregon.

"That sounds like torture. I don't have the patience for you finding it more difficult to decide which pair of shoes to buy than a mother choosing which kid to rescue from a deadly fire," Azula says loftily and Ty Lee shrugs.

"This is our only time together," Ty Lee says, sitting down on Azula's pristine cerulean sheets. They are hand embroidered with a dragon pattern, which Ty Lee thinks has something to do with organized crime, but she's not gonna ask. Ozai scares her. "You have to go back to beating people up and liking public speaking for some reason and I have to go back to cheerleading and … I guess we have dance together."

"We do," Azula says as she stares out of her window at the neatly trimmed tree outside. It scrapes against the roof. "You know that you could come support me instead of waving your pom-poms so some boy can go to college for free, don't you?"

Ty Lee begins listing, "I went to karate with you one time, remember? And then we got snacks and you didn't know what an ice cream bar was—"

"I knew what an ice cream bar was. I just didn't know any of the brands or how to eat one."

"Haru plays football. Why can't I support him?" Ty Lee whines while batting her eyelashes.

Azula cannot believe she is hearing about Haru's football playing yet again. "Mmm, he doesn't even have an important position on the team. You could do better."

"Thank you," Ty Lee says and Azula smirks at how easy it is to insult her through veiled flattery. It goes right over her head.

"Come out on the roof with me," Azula orders, unlocking her window and pushing it open. She slips over the sill with ease and stares at Ty Lee until her friend caves in and nimbly follows her.

"Are you gonna push me off?"

"No. Why would I push you off a roof? Who does that?"

"You do."

"I don't," Azula hisses, although she knows very well what incident Ty Lee has just suggested.

Ty Lee giggles and says, "You pushed Sam Hardy off a roof the summer after seventh grade."

"He tried to kiss me." A rock solid defense.

"He had to go to the hospital." Ty Lee cannot help but laugh and feel like an awful person for it.

Azula laughs. "I know. His teeth came out like bloody chiclets."

Ty Lee pinches the bridge of her nose and tries her best not to laugh. But she cannot hold back, no matter how hard she tries.

"That's why you don't have a boyfriend," Ty Lee says.

"Because I broke a boy's jaw when I was twelve?"

"Because you're scary and stuff. You're so insanely extremely beautiful but you seem really…" unearthly, perfect, intimidatingly stunning. Ty Lee would use that word if she could sort it out and get it out of her lips.

"Who's in your backyard?" Azula asks, gazing over her shoulder at Ty Lee's pool.

Ty Lee turns bright red and her heart skips a beat. "My mom sunbathing, stop looking!"

Azula cackles and looks across the street at Mai's house. Ty Lee lived here when Azula moved; Mai moved once Azula lived here. She is out with Azula's brother at present. Ick.

"My mom invited me to stay with her for Christmas," Azula says, rolling her eyes. "I can't believe she even tried."

"Yup, yup, yup," Ty Lee awkwardly agrees. "She's so annoying. Uhh… are you ready for the Class President Election thing?"

"Of course. I am a born leader. In fact, I am shocked that by sophomore year I still haven't conquered an empire of my own."

Azula's thin cardigan lights up and vibrates. A text, presumably from her father.

Azula pulls out the two rectangular lumps from her cardigan pocket.

The phone is because she is two minutes late to call Ozai, and the pack of secret cigarettes are so she can cope with the fact that she is calling her dad for the third check-in today.

In the silence, Ty Lee stares at her lips until Azula hangs up and their eyes meet again.

She wishes she could kiss her, if it weren't for burning objects in her mouth and the likelihood Ty Lee would regret it forever.

Unrequited love is colder than winter and more tantalizing than spring.

[X]

Ty Lee thinks that the best description of Azula dancing ever written is 'a nimble, graceful superhuman alien sent from Planet Prodigy to make us mere mortals feel pathetically clumsy'. When she pirouettes she looks like she is a swirling flame. When she moves she has this controlled power in every movement that is the opposite of dainty but breathtakingly smooth and soft. She is the most beautiful thing Ty Lee has ever seen in her whole life.

For a long while, Ty Lee wanted to be her. But as of the past autumn and winter, she has realized that she wants to make out with her.

She is watching with Mai as Azula rehearses for The Rite of Spring. Lead role, as usual. Ty Lee is high up there and they're a duo to die for, so she never has been envious. Mai hates dancing and is only here because the only other option was being at her dad's office or the school.

Mai would have more fun watching paint dry.

Ty Lee finds it difficult to watch Azula pirouette into the arms of Hahn and not feel seething jealousy. Their dance is too sensual, too sexual, too important. Ty Lee never gets jealous! Ty Lee is pretty, popular and talented and loves all people so she doesn't want to hurt them. But she wants to shove Hahn away every time Azula goes near him.

And, honestly, that's pretty scary.

"You look at her boobs a lot," Mai says just as Ty Lee thinks of that.

"If I hated anybody I would hate you," Ty Lee hisses at her as she makes a tear in her stupid skirt for The Rite of Spring. "And she just has perfect ones that I'm jealous of. They're very perk-perfect just like her."

"I think you're protesting too much," Mai says and Ty Lee sighs huffily.

"I was like ten when I told you about that crush. It's been like five years and I'm over her with Haru," Ty Lee says, smiling at Mai. It looks dangerous and Mai does not care enough to get involved.

Ty Lee can crush on the girl next door.

It isn't like she's going to marry her and have a kid.

SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES

"Weddings are never about the bride and groom; weddings are public platforms for dysfunctional families."
-Lisa Kleypas, Blue-Eyed Devil-

Chapter One: They Cut Off Their Own Fingers

"No, she's not mine," Azula protests to the nosy flight attend she will fire when she gets home. Yes, she, a fearsome Time's Woman of the Year, is helping a little girl read a picture book on a pink-cased iPad. But that does not make her a mom. "And, no, we're not married."

She sits on the plane home from Montana, and could not be more relieved. The questions about her engagement were ceaseless, and the fact that Ilah made Ty Lee propose five times so she could get the best picture was potentially worse.

Bunny has been babbling about how much she loves flying since they arrived at the Bozeman Airport, and Azula finally got her to quiet down.

"I wanna go to a diner when we get home," Ty Lee breathes longingly. "I would literally murder someone for diner toast. How do they make that stuff? How?"

"They make it in a pan instead of a toaster," Azula replies, as she taps on Go the Fuck to Sleep narrative by Samuel L. Jackson and plugs the headphones into Bunny's ears. "It isn't rocket science."

"Hm." Ty Lee pensively gazes out of the window for a moment. "You could teach me how."

"You'll burn down your apartment." Azula smirks.

"Yeah…"

"Although, that would be the best way to clean it."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes. "You're probably right."

She lies back, closes her eyes and waits to arrive back in the filthy snow.

[X]

Despite the red-eye, Azula goes to the office the next morning and escorts Bunny to daycare. Ty Lee, having a job not requiring glitter lotion now, is forced to come with her. It is a beautiful, shimmery, towering building with the huge logo of Sozin Industries. And Ty Lee is asleep at the front desk of the top floor.

Sweet, sweet sleep.

Until a stack of files smashes down on the desk with the loud vivacity of a cannon firing.

"Stop sleeping at your desk. I'll get accused of nepotism," Azula snaps, not that anyone would dare to do that.

"You're mean," Ty Lee murmurs, wiping drool off of her lips. "Is the day over yet?"

"My father is on the phone and Lilah is stalling him. Why can't you do your job? It's so easy." Azula looks livid. It is her standard my-father-is-on-the-phone look, and Ty Lee hates seeing it.

Defeated already, Ty Lee stands up. "What do I do?"

"Relieve Lilah of her duties. I'm going to a non-vital meeting."

"Woah-wait, non-vital."

Azula orders as she walks away, "In my office. My father. Stall him until he loses his patience, yells at you and hangs up."

"What?" Ty Lee asks, but Azula has already escaped.

Ty Lee shuffles into Azula's office. She had her desk ever-so-slightly raised from the floor so it would give the illusion of everyone else being much smaller than her. It is a very good example of how Azula runs things.

Fear is the best way to control people, is her secret motto.

'Thank you' mouths Lilah as she pushes the phone into Ty Lee's hand.

Ty Lee makes a small sleepy sound, because her brain stops working.

"Are you someone more competent than that last girl?"

"Mmm," and Ty Lee panics and responds in the Mississippi accent of her mother, "Yes. I am much more competent than that other girl."

"Good. Who are you, where were you born, what is your exact title and where is my daughter?"

"I'm… S-Susan and was born in a place and I forget the other two questions."

[X]

Azula returns to a sweaty fiancée on the verge of tears.

"You monster!" Ty Lee shouts, and no one can hear her, because it is already after hours and only the lights of the city illuminate Ty Lee. Sitting on Azula's desk, she almost looks scary. "He said something about sending people over to your apartment."

Azula freezes. "Lilah did not inform me of that. I can't trust her. You made a good impression, right?"

"I lied and talked in a Southern accent and told him about my childhood, which I based on Sixteen and Pregnant and told him my name was Susan," Ty Lee whispers, averting her eyes like a guilty puppy.

"Well, I hope it was an Academy Award winning performance. I will call him back now and hope he didn't recognize your voice," Azula says, going to her most called number and touching it. He answers after one ring. "Hello, father."

"This took you long enough."

"I had urgent matters to attend to," Azula purrs so confidently. Ty Lee envies and loves it. "Susan tells me that there are people likely waiting for me in my home?"

Ty Lee kisses her on the neck because she genuinely thought Azula would sell her out to Ozai as misdirection.

Azula tries not to make a sound. She can handle this; she can be completely serious on her important phone call to her father while her personal assistant is kissing her neck.

"I've sent two family friends over."

"We don't have any family fri—oh good God, father. I've just gotten home; I don't have the time for an appointment with the League of Assassins."

"What's the League of Assassins? Do they have that in New York?"

"They're from Batman," Azula says in a voice that makes Ty Lee stop kissing her. "You are investigating my fiancée because you're uncomfortable with her."

"You two have been dating for a few months."

"We've been hot and cold since middle school. You dated Mai for three months before you eloped."

"I don't appreciate that tone."

"I don't appreciate you sending your goons over to my girlfriend's house."

"Not goons. Lovely people who will take you two out to dinner."

Azula clears her throat and inquires, "What are their professions?"

"A bounty hunter and weapons dealer. I didn't discuss my issues with you two because your grandfather seems to approve for some reason. I have business at home or I would have shown up myself."

"I know you have a right to check on your investment. I simply would've liked the warning."

"And give you time to prepare?"

"Goodbye, father. I have a very important client on the other line."

"No, you don't. It's past ten."

She hangs up anyway. Azula feels she will regret that, but at the time, she does not care.

"We have to go escort some of my father's friends to dinner so they can examine us for him. Get Bunny a sitter and give me back my cardigan."

[X]

An hour later, "Why are you so nervous?" Azula demands as they walk into the elevator of her building. "They're some tattooed, glorified drug dealers with table manners. If they have a problem with you, I will have a problem with them. And you have seen what happens when I have a problem with others."

"They cut off their own fingers," Ty Lee whispers nervously with wide eyes. Rising to each floor makes her heartbeat race.

"You will live," Azula states crisply and before Ty Lee can protest profusely, ding, the elevator chimes.

Ty Lee walks forward, holding onto Azula's waist. Then she thinks that might be too sexual, so she moves to her girlfriend's hand. Of course, her palms are too sweaty to get a decent grip.

A male voice says from inside Azula's apartment, "Did you know that sweaty palms are an evolutionary response to fear so when it dries you can hold onto weapons better."

"Or windowsills," adds a female voice from the same directions. "What? People cling onto those better than they should be able to."

Ty Lee gives Azula a pleading glance, but her fiancée has already walked into the living room and found two people making themselves at home on her sofa.

"We made coffee," says the woman.