Update: I've changed the name of this story. It was just too long. I couldn't do it anymore. Formerly The Beginning In the End In the Beginning.

A/N: Hey guys! So, a couple of things before we get started. First off, this story was originally conceived as a oneshot, but then it ended up being almost 40,000 words, so I decided to break it into three parts. Parts One and Two will be close to the same length, and then Part Three will be almost as long as the first two combined. This also started out being strictly Tyzula, but I ended up focusing on Ty Lee's relationships with both Mai and Suki pretty heavily as well, and, personally, I think the story is better for it.

Like I mentioned in the summary, the rating is subject to change, and I expect it will go up to M when I post Part Three. There's nothing explicit or anything. It's just a couple of things that I could get away with under a T rating by themselves, but added together, probably not. I'll go into more detail about the warnings when I post that chapter, but shoot me a pm if you're concerned.

On an unrelated note, if you read If You Look for the Light, you may notice certain plot similarities, but this story does not take place in the same universe.

August, 100 AG

Zuko first admits to Ty Lee and Mai that he fully intended to kill Azula shortly after she is admitted to the asylum. "And then I saw how… how she was… and I couldn't go through with it." He shakes his head. "I didn't know. She seemed so sane when I was home. She seemed like herself." He looks up at the two of them, studies them for a moment. "You both spent more time with her than I did. Did either of you see it?"

Mai sighs. It is not the long-suffering sigh she has spent years perfecting. It is not at all overly dramatic. In fact, she almost sounds sad. "I did."

"You did?" Ty Lee cries, while Zuko's eyes widen. "When?"

"The year before you," she nods at Zuko, "were banished."

"What?" Ty Lee grasps Mai's upper arms and shakes. "That long ago? That's like… like, four years!"

Mai extricates herself from her friend. "Oh, this has been coming for a long time."

"Well, why didn't you do anything?" Ty Lee presses.

Mai rolls her eyes. "Maybe because she would have burned me alive if I'd even suggested it. What was I supposed to say? Excuse me, Princess, but I think you're starting to go insane?"

She turns to Zuko for support, but he looks completely devastated, like he's just watched her slit the throat of a baby turtle duck. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were twelve," Mai shrugs. "What would you have done?"

"Why didn't you tell me when I came back?" He elaborates.

Mai sighs again, grimaces, and drops her eyes to the side. "I guess I just… didn't think about it."

"You didn't think about it?" Zuko repeats. "You didn't think about that fact that your friend was losing her mind? You didn't think that was something her brother might want to know?"

"You have to understand, Zuko." Mai's voice is level and calm, but there is just a touch of urgency to it that betrays her. "It was old news by then. I barely thought about it anymore. And I was sort of…"

"Distracted," Zuko finishes with a nod of his head. "I know." He pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled."

Mai lays a hand on his arm. "She's your sister." As if that is all the explanation that is needed. Ty Lee is reminded forcefully that Mai is an older sibling too.

June, 102 AG/ June, 104 AG

Azula disappears just before the two year anniversary of the end of the war. Mai is gone by then, to a flower shop owned by her aunt. Ty Lee receives letters from her every so often. She never sounds happy, and she asks about Zuko a lot. Later on, her brother is with her, and Ty Lee thinks that might have cheered her up, if not for the fact that she finds him in the shadow of her father's treachery, but she has rescued him from an upbringing like Azula's, and Ty Lee thinks she should be proud of that. Mai has always cared about her brother, even though to she goes to great pains to make it look like she doesn't.

"She's gone," Zuko tells Ty Lee and Suki. He had arrived back at the palace just over two hours ago and would answer no questions until he'd sat alone in his room in the dark for almost an hour. "She ran into the forest. We couldn't find her. We looked…" He drops his head into his hands.

"She'll be okay, Zuko." Suki reaches across the table and lays her hand on his knee in a gesture that might raise Ty Lee's eyebrows if she wasn't acutely aware of how in love with Sokka her friend is. "If there's anyone who can take care of herself, it's Azula."

He shakes his head. "You didn't see her. She was… she was… insane. She barely knew what was happening."

"She'll turn up," Ty Lee adds, sounding more confident than she really is. "You know Azula. She's high maintenance. She needs attention. She won't be able to stay hidden for long."

But Azula doesn't turn up. Mai returns to the palace after receiving Ty Lee's letter about the Princess' disappearance and after Zuko promises profusely never to lie to her again, the assassination attempts taper off, Ty Lee and Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors leave Capital City to return to their island, and still, Azula does not turn up. Two years pass, and Azula does not turn up.

And then one day, Ty Lee receives a letter. Mail is rare on Kyoshi Island. It is only delivered every couple of weeks, and the only person Ty Lee ever hears from is Mai, but Ty Lee still has not replied to Mai's most recent correspondence, so she is certainly not expecting anything.

"It has the Fire Lady's seal on it," Suki informs her as she hands her it to her, and Ty Lee vaguely wonders how Suki even knows what the Fire Lady's seal looks like—there hasn't been one since Fire Lady Ilah died more than ten years ago, and besides, Suki had never been off Kyoshi Island until the war—before realizing that the use of that particular seal makes no sense at all. Mai isn't the Fire Lady. Not yet.

She tears the letter open, ripping the paper in her haste, and skims her eyes over the words.

"What?" Suki asks urgently, reaching for Ty Lee's shoulder, when she gasps and presses her hand to her mouth so hard the skin around it turns white.

"Uhh…" she hums, trying to recover her words. When she finally finds them, she can only manage a whisper. "A-Azula's been found."

July, 104 AG

Despite Suki's offers to come with her or to send Sokka, Ty Lee arrives in Capitol City by herself. Zuko seems surprised to see her, but quickly recovers. Mai stands serenely next to him and says nothing. Ty Lee senses that she is concealing a smirk.

"He wouldn't have wanted me to ask you what I did," Mai explains later. "He wanted to keep her in the palace, but it's not good for her. She's only gotten worse since she's been here. We need to get her out."

On the way to the dining room that evening, Ty Lee passes a portrait of Ozai that has hung in the palace since shortly after he took the throne. She is surprised that Zuko left it up, but perhaps, she thinks, it is a show of respect. Even in death, Ozai commands a certain reverence from his son. In any case, it probably will not be hanging much longer. The paint has been scratched off the canvas in eight long stripes. Like someone did it with their fingernails. Twice she passes empty swatches of wall where she knows mirrors used to hang.

"Mai tells me you've come to offer Azula a home on Kyoshi Island," Zuko says to her. "Is this something you're really prepared to do?"

"Mai told me Azula couldn't stay here," she replies evenly. "I don't see any alternative. I can handle anything she throws at me." She means it literally. She means lightning. She bested Azula once, when she was a fourteen-year-old circus performer, and Azula was freshly trained by the best instructors in the world. It has been four years since then, and Azula spent two of them in an asylum, where she was not allowed to bend at all. Meanwhile, Ty Lee has trained with one of the Earth Kingdom's premier fighting groups. She has nothing but confidence in her own abilities.

"She doesn't have her fire anymore," Mai tells her in a voice that is uncharacteristically quiet, even for Mai, later that evening. At first, Ty Lee takes it metaphorically.

"Of course she doesn't. She was barely herself before she escaped, and then she spent two years on the run."

"No," Mai replies. "Her firebending. She doesn't have her firebending anymore."

"What?" Ty Lee whispers, her eyes widening. "What happened to it?"

Mai sighs. "Zuko tried to explain it to me, but he wasn't making much sense. He was going off about her losing her rage or something, and then he started talking about dragons, and I kind of tuned him out after that." She shrugs. "He hasn't been sleeping much."

Ty Lee has associated Azula with fire for as long as she's known her. The Princess was already a prodigy when they met and she remembers sitting in the garden with Mai, both of them watching her train, but Mai pretending not to. Even though she knows this development will make her own life infinitely easier, she finds herself unable to imagine Azula without the power to strike a person down where they stand.

Ty Lee doesn't see Azula until late the next afternoon. "She would have been at dinner last night," Zuko explains as they walk down the dark corridor that leads to the royal family's residential suites. "But yesterday… well, it wasn't a good day."

They come to a stop outside the door to Azula's bedroom. "I'll be right out here if you need anything." He places a hand on her shoulder. "But I have a feeling you'll be just fine."

The room is dark, and, at first, Ty Lee thinks it is empty. She turns to leave, to ask Zuko if maybe one of the servants took the Princess somewhere, but then she catches movement out of the corner of her eye.

Azula is a large shadow huddled at the foot of the bed. "Did my father tell you to come?"

Ty Lee draws her eyebrows together because surely Azula knows. Everyone in any of the nations knows. "Azula… your father is dead." He'd only lived two and a half years into his prison sentence. Ty Lee had never known anyone to die of a lack of comfort before.

She laughs, short and dry. It sounds like a bark. "I know that. That's not what I asked. Did he tell you to come here?"

"No." Ty Lee shakes her head slowly. "I haven't seen your father since he went to pri—since the end of the war."

"He mocks me," Azula explains bitterly as Ty Lee takes a step closer. "He hides in the walls, but he won't leave me alone." She clutches her head between her hands and begins to rock back and forth with alarming force. Ty Lee sinks down beside the Princess and grabs her wrists. The rocking ceases, and Azula is left heaving long, shuddering breaths. As her eyes adjust to the dark, Ty Lee can start to make out the details of Azula's features. Her cheekbones are more prominent that Ty Lee remembers, a mixture of age and malnutrition from being on the run, she is sure. There are dark bags under her eyes that explain the fact that the bed does not look like it has been touched. Some sort of mark creeps up the left side of her neck from under her robe. A rash, perhaps. Her knuckles bear dozens of cuts in various stages of healing and something dark is caked under her fingernails (Ty Lee suddenly remembers the portrait of Ozai). Once a force of nature, she is now only shadow of her former self.

"Azula," Ty Lee whispers. She swallows thickly. "How would you like to go somewhere he can't get to you?"

Azula slowly removes her hands and looks up at her companion, eyes wide. God, she looks like a child. "There's someplace like that?"

"Yes," Ty Lee nods, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. "An island. I live there now. You can come stay if you… if you want."

Azula looks away. "You're only asking out of pity. You don't really want me there."

"That's not true." Ty Lee frowns and crosses her arms. "Why wouldn't I? You're my friend."

"I wasn't your friend when you blocked my chi and tried to run off with Mai at the Boiling Rock," she argues, an edge her voice that Ty Lee recognizes, though she has never heard it directed at her. "You weren't my friend when they were locking me away in the asylum like some common half-wit. And that was even when I could do something for you. Why should I believe that you've decided to be my friend now that I'm worthless?"

"That's not true," Ty Lee repeats. "I was always your friend, Azula. But I was Mai's friend too. And you needed help." She hesitates. "You still need help."

"I need nothing," Azula snaps. "I'm fine. You're dismissed."

Ty Lee shakes her head. "I'm not going anywhere until you agree to come with me."

Azula meets her eyes again, studies her. "You dare defy me?"

"I defied you when you had the ability to strike me down with lightning," Ty Lee points out. "What made you think I wouldn't do it now?"

August, 104 AG

Azula has been much calmer since they've been on the ship. Zuko had the mirror removed from her cabin as a precaution before they set sail, but the ones in the latrines have remained undamaged.

"You can't see our house from here," Ty Lee comments as she comes up behind Azula, standing on the deck, watching as, after nearly a week, the island finally approaches. Ty Lee has grown in two years, and she has at least three inches—almost as much as Mai—on Azula now. Azula doesn't seem to have grown much at all, though she has certainly lost weight, and Ty Lee unsure how much of the weight loss is a result of natural aging and how much came from going hungry during the years she was away and refusing to eat once she was back in the Fire Nation.

"You mean your house," she replies.

"No."

"Listen, Ty Lee." Azula turns to her. "I know you like to think that things always work out but—"

"No, I don't," Ty Lee interrupts. "I've never thought that."

"Well, I—"

Ty Lee knits her brows together. "Do you really think that about me?"

"You just…" Azula falters. She furrows her brow and starts over. "You always seemed content to hope for the best."

"I did that because I trusted you," Ty Lee answers. "Not because I had some sort of blind faith that the universe would work itself out in my favor. Do you think I was just hoping for the best when I incapacitated you at the Boiling Rock?"

She remembers herself at fourteen. Upbeat compared to her friends and overly enthusiastic, but not innocent, not naïve. She had traversed the Earth Kingdom before Azula even set foot there. She had done things by the age of fourteen that she thinks Azula has still not done.

"I—"

"I thought you were going to kill us, Azula," Ty Lee answers her own question before her companion has a chance to. "I was prepared to die. The entire time, I was prepared to die."

Ty Lee never told Suki she was bringing Azula. It had never occurred to her that Suki would have a problem with it, past a mild displeasure about the idea of living near someone she didn't like. She realizes now, that was a foolish assumption.

"You didn't even ask me how I felt about it." They are standing in Suki's tiny kitchen, Azula huddled on the couch in the living room. Suki is trying to keep her voice level or even angry, but Ty Lee can hear a tremor that reveals another emotion all together.

"Why would I?" Ty Lee argues, crossing her arms. "It's not like you own the island."

"No," Suki answers. "But I do live here. As do all the other Kyoshi Warriors she imprisoned."

"So?" Ty Lee asks. "She imprisoned me too. It wasn't personal. It was just war." Of course, it had been personal when Azula threw Ty Lee in the Boiling Rock, but in Ty Lee's opinion, that only helps her case.

Suki's face hardens and she blinks furiously, like her eyes are betraying her for daring to tear. "I can't believe you didn't talk to anyone beforehand." She shakes her head. "I know Azula was your friend, Ty, but we're your friends too."

"She is my friend," Ty Lee answers. She lowers her voice. "And she needs help. You didn't see her back there Suki. She barely knew what was happening. I can't send her back to the palace. I won't."

Suki is wiping at her eyes now, and her hands come away wet. Ty Lee is beginning to wonder if she is overreacting just a little, when she sinks into one of the wobbly little kitchen chairs. She drops her head into her hands, takes a deep breath, and meets Ty Lee's eyes. "Do you know what I really saw when she got off that ship?"

"No," Ty Lee replies as she claims the chair across from her.

Suki's voice drops to a whisper and she makes no move to conceal the tear that streaks down her right cheek. "I saw her ordering the guards to hold me upside down until I gave them the Avatar's location. I saw her ordering them to dunk my head in the bucket again unless I told them." She sighs. "I saw her smiling."

Ty Lee is at a loss for words. She thinks her heart might be breaking, and suddenly her remark about it not being personal seems extremely insensitive. But Azula never mentioned taking trips to the Boiling Rock, even if Ty Lee didn't see her every day once they were back in the Fire Nation. None of the other Kyoshi Warriors ever mentioned it. "I…" she stammers. "I didn't know."

"You would have." Suki narrows her eyes. "If you had talked to me."

"I'm sorry," Ty Lee offers and hopes it will be enough, hopes her oversight hasn't damaged their relationship permanently. They have become so close over the past four years.

Suki shakes her head and breaths a heavy sigh. "You couldn't have known. The rest of the girls weren't transferred to the Boiling Rock until after I escaped and… I never told them."

Before Ty Lee has even had time to think, she is kneeling in front of Suki, pulling her friend's body to her. Suki's head is heavy on her shoulder. "I still dream about it," she admits, her voice muffled in the crook of Ty Lee's neck. "Sokka has to wake me up sometimes, when he visits."

"I'm so sorry," Ty Lee repeats as she rubs her commander's back. She can feel her shirt growing wet, can feel tears pricking at the corners of her own eyes, but despite herself, her heart races as Suki shifts against her. It is all incredibly conflicting. "I just didn't know."

Suki sniffles and sits back up. "If you breathe a word of this to anyone…" She is no Azula, and the threat is undermined by a watery smile.

"I won't. Promise. My lips are sealed." She presses them together to demonstrate. "But," she glances over her shoulder, through the doorway. "Azula…"

"Of course she can stay," Suki agrees. "As you said, it's not my island. I just… I wish you'd thought. I wish you'd at least warned me."

Ty Lee never thinks, her sisters used to say.

"Thank you, Suki!" Ty Lee exclaims, drawing her in for another hug, this one short and tight.

"But, she's your responsibility," Suki adds, her voice stern. "You keep her out of trouble. And don't forget about your commitment to the Kyoshi Warriors. I expect you on time every morning, as usual. I didn't make an exception for Yani when her mother was ill, and I can't make one for you."

"Of course," Ty Lee agrees, nodding enthusiastically.

"And I can't offer you any extra provisions," she continues. "The refurbishment nearly ran us dry, and Min's father just died. She needs what little extra we have more than you do."

"That's fine," Ty Lee replies. "I promise, I'll make this up to you, Suki."

With that, she is out of the kitchen, pulling Azula off the couch and through the front door.

September, 104 AG

Azula's first month on the island goes better than anyone expects it to. She spends the first two weeks on the couch because Ty Lee cannot afford a bed until she gets paid. She had been ready for Azula to demand Ty Lee's bed for herself. She had been ready for an argument, but there was none.

On the third night of the second week, Ty Lee wakes to a crash in the living room. She stumbles groggily out of bed and pushes the door open, leaning heavily on the doorframe. "Azula?" she yawns.

Azula is sitting on the floor beside the couch extricating herself from the mess of blankets tangled around her legs. "Go back to sleep, Ty Lee," she says, and her voice shakes.

Ty Lee ignores the command and pushes herself off the doorframe to join her friend on the floor. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Azula replies. "I'm fine. I fell, that's all."

Azula used to be much better at lying. Perhaps it is because she is tired.

Ty Lee lays a hand on her shoulder. "Azula, you're trembling."

She jerks away. "No, I'm not."

Ty Lee raises an eyebrow. Finally the Princess sighs. "It was a nightmare. It was nothing. I'm quite used to them."

"But you haven't had one since you've been here."

"I haven't had a loud one since I've been here," Azula corrects. "But, like I said." A wave of her hand. "They're nothing."

Ty Lee sighs and shakes her head. "Everyone's having nightmares."

"You are too?" Azula snaps her head up to study her friend.

"Me?" Ty Lee asks in surprise. "No, I was talking about—never mind. No, I don't."

"Oh," is Azula reply, and she almost sounds disappointed?

"We'll be able to buy your bed at the end of the week," Ty Lee informs her as she finally frees her legs from the confines of the blanket. "And then you won't have to sleep out here by yourself anymore."

Azula looks surprised. "I'm sleeping in your room?"

"Duh," Ty Lee answers as Azula climbs back onto the couch. "Where else would you sleep, the kitchen? It's not like I live in a pala—in a really big house. I don't exactly have a room to spare."

The Princess sighs. "Please don't do that."

Ty Lee furrows her brow. "Do what?"

Azula plucks the blanket off the floor and pulls it over her knees. "Treat me like I'm about to break. I'm not going to lose it because you say the word, palace. Actually going there, on the other hand…"

"Okay, okay, I get it."

"Well," Azula says. "As you can see, I'm back on the couch. I'm not injured. I'm not crazy. You can go back to sleep." She yawns. "I'm going to." And, without another word, she lies down, rolls over so Ty Lee is staring at her back, and quickly begins making herself comfortable.

Azula will not undress in front of Ty Lee. It is not something she notices until they begin to share a bedroom, and it strikes her as odd, because they have certainly changed in the same room before. She remembers those months they spent in the Earth Kingdom hunting down the Avatar, the two of them and Mai all crunched into one tent trying to pull their shirts over their heads without elbowing one another in the face. Now Azula pretends to be asleep (she knows Azula is pretending because in reality, she doesn't look nearly so dignified when she sleeps) until Ty Lee dresses and leaves the room to prepare breakfast. She is never more than two steps into the kitchen when she hears the bedroom door click shut.

Azula always joins her minutes later, dressed and haughty as ever, and Ty Lee doesn't mention this apparently newfound insecurity. Perhaps it is something she picked up at the mental hospital.

"Morning," she chirps on one of these mornings during the second week of the second month of Azula's stay. She is at the counter slicing fruit, and Azula picks one off the tray and pops it into her mouth. "Hey!"

"You take too long," Azula comments in way of explanation as she sinks into one of the chairs at the table.

"You just woke up," Ty Lee argues, even though she knows it isn't true. "And it wouldn't take so long if you helped, you know." Azula merely snorts. "What?" Ty Lee continues. "You're too good for that? You don't have servants here, you know. I'm not your servant." She scrapes the fruit off the counter and into a bowl. "This is my breakfast. You can make your own."

From then on, Azula rises every morning before Ty Lee. She is already in the kitchen, struggling to pick the shells out of an egg in a pan or methodically chopping vegetables into pieces that are still uneven when Ty Lee emerges. She occasionally offers small bits of advice, such as, "You'll have better control over the knife if you hold it this way" or "No, crack the egg like this," but for the most part, she enjoys watching Azula's frustration. The girl who is—was the most powerful firebender the world had ever known, can't even fry an egg properly. It gives Ty Lee an odd sense of satisfaction. Azula is not so perfect after all.

She makes her own breakfast, working around her friend, who is, without fail, still struggling when Ty Lee sits down to eat, every so often throwing out those gentle tips if Azula really seems to be floundering.

Ty Lee is carefully applying her paint and pinning her hairpiece (and being way too perfectionistic about it, even though Suki won't even notice) by the time Azula actually begins to eat. "Don't try to cook anything on the stove until I get home," she advises as she walks out the door. "You'll burn the house down, and I really can't afford another one."

December, 104 AG

Birthdays are not something the Kyoshi Warriors usually celebrate together. There will, of course, be congratulations at training, maybe they'll do something special for lunch, but at the end of the day, they go home and celebrate with their families. Unless it's Ty Lee's birthday. Or Suki's.

Ty Lee learned a week into her stay on Kyoshi Island that she and Suki are the only warriors with no family to speak of. Ty Lee has a family, of course, but she hasn't seen them since she ran away to the circus five years ago and she doubts they have even noticed she's missing. Suki has never mentioned what happened to her family, but Ty Lee knows from the other warriors that she has been on her own for at least seven or eight years now.

"She joined the Kyoshi Warriors young because no one else would take her in," Min whispered to Ty Lee when she'd asked how Suki had risen to leadership at the tender age of fourteen when many of the girls were five or six years older.

Suki turns twenty four months after Azula's arrival, and so far, they have done a remarkably good job of staying out of each other's way, but Ty Lee hates the idea of missing the party. She and Suki have established a certain solidarity, being the only ones without family. They spend holidays together. They buy each other presents on special occasions. They are each other's family. But there is no way Ty Lee can leave Azula home alone for an evening just because my other friends don't like you, even if they do have an admittedly very good reason not to. Azula is Ty Lee's family now too.

"Azula can come," Suki says without even looking up as Ty Lee approaches her after training has ended and the rest of the girls have gone home to wash off their paint.

Ty Lee is stunned. "How did you…"

Suki places a hand on her shoulder. "I know you pretty well, Ty."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Ty Lee asks, because Suki really shouldn't have to deal with the person who tortured her for months on her birthday. "We can stay home."

"I want you there," Suki replies. "And I know the two of you are a package deal now. Just…" She sighs and looks away. "Just make sure she behaves herself, okay?"

And that is how Azula ends up at Suki's twentieth birthday party.

They arrive late, Ty Lee practically bounding with energy, Azula trailing several feet behind her.

"I don't want to go."

"Azula," Ty Lee sighs. "I'm going, and I'm not leaving you here, so you're coming."

"Why can't I stay here?" Azula argues. "I've been here all day."

"And that's long enough. Besides, you never go out. You need to socialize more."

Azula frowns. "You just don't trust me alone. Are you afraid the voices will come back if you're gone too long, Ty Lee? Do you think your presence is keeping them away?"

"I just…" Ty Lee hesitates. "I just worry about you."

"Well, don't." Azula crosses her arms in front of her chest. Her voice is firm, determined, but it only has a fraction of the edge it used to. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I did it for two years. I think I can manage for one evening."

"Too bad I don't care what you think."

Azula's eyes narrow, because they both know Ty Lee would never have talked to Azula like this during the war, but things have changed in four years. Ty Lee has grown a backbone with the Kyoshi Warriors, and Azula's time on the run seems to have made her less angry and far more agreeable.

Ty Lee clenches her fists and then unclenches them. Inhales. Exhales. "Azula… I know how well you're doing. Believe me, I've noticed. But that doesn't mean I'm going to forget about how you were in the Fire Nation. Just because you're fine right now doesn't mean you're better. Azula, you haven't been healthy in a long time. I'm not going to not worry about you just because you seemed okay when I left this morning."

"And exactly how long do you plan on treating me like a child?" Azula asks furiously. "How long until you trust me again?" Ty Lee drops her eyes. Azula's widen. "You're never going to trust me again, are you?" Her voice is small, and maybe, if Ty Lee's ears are not betraying her, even frightened.

"It's not that I'll never trust you, Azula," she explains. "But trust has to be earned, and after everything that happened, it's going to take more than what you've given me."

"I could say the same to you."

"Listen," Ty Lee sighs, pressing her index fingers to her temples. "This has nothing to do with anything. I could trust you more than I trust Suki or Mai, and I still wouldn't leave you alone tonight, because you're my friend, and I care about you. And I won't have fun if you're here. So you're coming, even if I have to carry you and leave you out on the porch."

"Ty Lee, you're here!" Suki greets her with a hug. Ty Lee can see her studying Azula, who is standing just behind Ty Lee's right shoulder, out of the corner of her eye, as if she is deciding whether she should acknowledge her. Finally she nods. "Azula." It is not laced with all the resent that Ty Lee expected, but she notices that Suki left Azula's titled out. She has informed Azula, in the absence of one word, not to expect any kind of deference, any more respect than Suki would show any other person. She has informed Azula that they are equals.

"I'm surprised you got her to come," Suki confides to Ty Lee later in the night. "I didn't think she'd agree to it."

Ty Lee frowns. "You told me to bring her."

"I know," Suki answers quickly. "I'm not complaining. I'm just surprised."

"Well, it wasn't easy," Ty Lee says. "She didn't exactly want to."

"Azula doesn't strike me as the kind of person who does anything she doesn't want to," Suki replies.

Ty Lee looks over her shoulder, to where Azula is standing with her back pressed into the corner of the wall clutching a slice of cake that Ty Lee thrust into her hands an hour ago and she hasn't touched since. "That used to be true, but I don't think it is anymore. Something happened in the last two years." Ty Lee tears her eyes from the Princess.

"Wow," Suki murmurs. "I wasn't under the impression Azula would ever be able to change. What do you think it was?"

"I don't know."

January, 105 AG

It takes Ty Lee a month to build up the courage to ask Azula what happened during the two years between her escape from Zuko and the Avatar in a rural area of the Fire Nation and her discovery in a completely different rural area on the other side of the Fire Nation. It isn't that she never wondered in the first four months Azula stayed with her, but Suki's comment has made her think about what could have exacted so great a change in the most headstrong and stubborn person she has ever met, and she keeps coming up empty.

"Azula?" she calls one night, nearly an hour after they have climbed into their beds on opposite sides of the room. She is almost hoping her companion is asleep.

"Yes, Ty Lee?" Her heart sinks.

"Azula, umm…" She hesitates, but she knows it is too late to go back. "What, umm… what exactly did you do, after you… left?"

She can hear a heavy sigh and a rustling of sheets. "I was wondering when you were going to ask."

"How did you—"

"Well, I knew something was going on," Azula interrupts, as if it should be obvious. "You've been staring at me when you thought I wasn't looking for weeks now. I don't see what else it could be." A bark of a laugh. "Unless you've suddenly realized you're in love with me or something."

"Oh, no… I, umm… I haven't."

"I thought as much," Azula replies. She does not say anything else for a long time, and Ty Lee decides that she is not going to answer and rolls over. And then Azula speaks again. "I woke up the next morning—I think it was the next morning—in the middle of the forest. I didn't really have a plan, but I knew that I had to find the road." Ty Lee turns back over. Azula is laying on her back, staring straight at the ceiling. "I started walking. I don't know how long I walked for, a couple of hours probably, and then a wagon came up behind me. There were three men on the it, and I heard one of them say, what about that one?, and then they were grabbing me. I tried to attack them, and that was when I realized…"

"You couldn't firebend," Ty Lee finishes.

"I could," Azula answers. "But the amount of heat I was able to produce would have been barely enough to warm a bowl of soup. So they threw me in a cage they had in the back of the wagon and covered it with a blanket." She sighs. "They took me to Omashu to sell me—apparently there's a market there for pretty, young, Fire Nation servant girls now; Mai's father never would have stood for it. Well, in Omashu, they recognized me, and they attacked the cart." Azula laughs, harsh and resentful. "I should thank them, really. All the chaos they were causing provided me with the diversion and the time I needed to escape.

"I obviously couldn't stay in Omashu, so I left, without the slightest idea where I was going to go. I wandered around for… I don't know how long, weeks probably. I was too out of shape to hunt without my bending—I have dear Zuko to thank for that—so I nearly died. And then a hunting party found me and took me back to their village. It was this squalid little town full of miners. Well, they knew I was Fire Nation from my clothes, and I woke up while they were deciding what to do with me, whether they should kick me out or let me stay. They eventually decided to feed me and let me spend the night, so I waited until they went to sleep, and I took some food and a change of clothes and left."

"You robbed the people who took you in?" Ty Lee's eyes widen.

Azula's gaze flits to her roommate before returning to the ceiling. "Don't act so surprised, Ty Lee. You've known me for a long time."

"But you're nothing like you were," Ty Lee replies.

"I didn't say I would make the same decision now," Azula answers. "The food didn't last very long anyway, and then I was back to starving." Her voice is laced with mere annoyance, and Ty Lee hates the casualty with which her friend can describe going hungry. "But then I ran into a group of Fire Nation street performers. Three of them were benders, fire eaters, actually, and the other was a dancer. They were on their way to Ba Sing Se. They agreed to take me with them if I promised to join the group as a dancer once we got there. The whole thing was incredibly degrading of course, and I was going to desert them as soon as they got me inside the city, but then I realized I had nowhere else to go. The fake papers that got me onto the ferry wouldn't have held up to scrutiny, and I would have been tossed right back into the desert, and the fire eaters already had a house waiting for them, so I stayed. I shared a room with the other dancer, Lian, and we started performing the next day." Azula rolls over so that her back is facing Ty Lee. "I stayed with them longer than I ever planned to. It was months. Almost a year. They didn't know who I was, so I knew that however they felt about me was because of me, not because I was a princess or a bending prodigy. They didn't like me at all at first, and I didn't care… but then I saw how they acted around each other and I actually… wanted to be a part of it."

"You're not exactly used to being left out," Ty Lee comments.

"No," Azula agrees. "I wasn't. I started talking to Lian, and I guess she told them about it, because they got a lot nicer to me after that. And then suddenly, they were including me in everything. And I had… friends."

"You had friends before," Ty Lee states.

"Yes," Azula answers dismissively. "But I always wondered if you and Mai stuck around because cared about me or because you feared me. With Lian, and Kuan Zhi, and Lok, and Shenzi, I never had to."

"Oh," Ty Lee replies, and she can't say much more than that, because if she is being honest with herself, sometimes she wasn't completely sure either.

"Being surrounded by so many people helped keep the voices away. Lian and I used to talk like we are now, and she woke me up when I was having nightmares," Azula admits. "And Lok and I were… close." Ty Lee feels a pang of sadness, and she can't quite place where it is coming from. "And then they left. The Earth King was pushing citizens from all the other nations, especially firebenders, toward the United Republic, so they decided to try their luck in Republic City. I obviously couldn't go there. My dear brother and the Avatar are in and out of that place all the time, so I decided to stay. I could barely bend anymore, and the name I was going by and ambiguous enough, so I thought I could pass as Earth Nation. I was hired by a couple who ran a flower shop. They liked to give second chances, so they didn't ask too many questions. They made me a dinner on my seventeenth birthday, and they let me live in their dead son's room—"

"Their son was dead?"

"Yes," Azula answers. "He died in the resistance movement during the Fire Nation occupation."

"So, when you were the Earth Queen?"

"I don't know when exactly," she replies. "It might have been after we left. Anyway, it didn't last very long. The customers kept disagreeing with me. They were all imbeciles, of course. They thought they knew everything just because they had gardens. I was the one who actually worked there. But eventually, the owners told me it wasn't going to work out. After that, I decided not to stay in Ba Sing Se after all. I joined a group of dancers getting on a luxury passenger ship so I could get out of the city. I shared a cabin with three other dancers, but the food was better than anything I'd had in the Earth Nation. I would have stayed longer, but one of my father's old friends got on with his family when we stopped in Capitol City, so I jumped ship at the first stop outside the Fire Nation." She turns over again, careful not to meet Ty Lee's eyes, and stares back of the ceiling.

"Unfortunately, there's not much of anything in Gaoling, and it's isolated enough that I couldn't leave to go somewhere else without transportation. I looked for work as a dancer—I had the experience, and it was the only way I could get anyone to even look at me—but there was nothing, so I served tea—"

Ty Lee gasps. "Just like your brother."

"Don't remind me," Azula answers. "And that didn't last very long either. A lot of sailors came through the tea shop, and I overheard one of them saying he needed an extra hand on his cargo ship, so I found him at the docks after my shift and he agreed to let me work for him in exchange for board. It was one of those ships that delivers supplies to the islands. It was a lot of work, but I got to see parts of the world I'd never bothered to visit before because they weren't worth conquering." She sighs. "But then on the second island we stopped at, the captain hired a boy, and I think he recognized me. He got this strange look on his face whenever he saw me, so I had to disappear on the third island.

"It was this dumpy little fishing village, and I didn't want to stay, but I knew the Eastern Air Temple was nearby, so I went there. There was this guru there, but he pretty much ignored me at the beginning. Then he found me while I was having a… well, a very heated conversation with my father, and he started teaching me how to meditate. And it helped. A lot."

"Do you still do it?" Ty Lee asks.

"Obviously." Ty Lee can see her roll her eyes. "I haven't seen him since I've been here, have I? What do you think I do here by myself all day? After a while—it was months—he told me about the Sun Warriors and the firebending masters. He told me I'd lost my bending because I was driving it with rage and my rage was gone, and he told me they could help me get it back, so I left the next morning. I went back to the village and waited for another ship to come in. That took me back to Gaoling. From there, I boarded another passenger ship disguised as a dancer, and then I slept in third class, where no one would notice an extra body, and that took me to Fire Fountain City. I spent a while in the woods trying to work out how I was going to get to the northern-most tip of the Fire Nation without being recognized. Then, when I snuck into the city one night to look for some food in the trash, I ran into someone who did recognize me, but it was Lok." There is almost emotion present in Azula's voice when she says the name. She drops her head toward the wall opposite Ty Lee. "He was working as a hand for a United Republic ship by that time—I guess the whole fire eating thing didn't work out in a city full of firebenders—and he offered to hide me. They were about to deliver a United Republic inspector to the Boiling Rock, so they were going pretty far north. I took him up on it, and I spent my eighteenth birthday sleeping in steerage.

"When we finally got to the Boiling Rock, he helped me steal a lifeboat and pointed me in the right direction. It took me two days to get to the island where the Sun Warriors were, and then, they had the nerve to tell me I wasn't worthy to see the masters. I threatened their lives, and that only made them more resolved, so I fought them. They tried not to use their bending against me, but then one of my fire blasts went in the direction of one of their children, and the chief decided it wasn't worth it. Honestly, I don't see why it was such as big deal, the fireball was only about the size of my fist and it burned out after about two feet, but apparently he thought it was a big deal. Anyway, I lost. It took me the rest of the day to find my lifeboat again, and by that time, I barely had the energy to push it off the beach and crawl in. The next thing I remember, I was on a Fire Nation military vessel. I was back in Zuko's custody by the week's end." She rolls so that, for the first time, she is facing Ty Lee. Her eyes bore into the other girl. "Happy?"

"Not really," Ty Lee replies. "But I'm glad to know." She pauses. "Azula, what was your name?"

"My name?"

"Yeah, you said you went by a different name," Ty Lee recalls. "What was it?"

"You have to understand, I was under a lot of pressure to come up with a name quickly, and I don't exactly know a lot of Earth Kingdom names," Azula explains.

"Azula, what was it?"

"Suki," she answers, her voice a harsh whisper. "I went by Suki."

"It was a really long story," Ty Lee tells Suki the next morning.

"What was?" Suki asks absentmindedly as she stares at a diagram of a complicated-looking jump kick.

"The story," Ty Lee answers. "What Azula was doing for two years."

Suki drops the book and look up at her. "She told you?"

"Mmhm." Ty Lee drops to the floor beside her friend. "I asked her last night."

"And she just… told you?"

Ty Lee nods. "Yep."

"Are you sure she was telling the truth?" Suki narrows her eyes. "It wouldn't be unlike her to invent a story that makes her look good."

"The thing is," Ty Lee explains. "It really didn't make her look all that good. She robbed some people who were trying to help her, she threatened the Sun Warriors—"

"I thought the Sun Warriors were just a myth," Suki comments.

Ty Lee shakes her head. "Nope. Zuko met them."

"Well…" Suki hesitates, bites her lip, like she's not sure how to respond. "Alright then."

Ty Lee does not tell Suki that Azula borrowed her name.

"I never thanked you," Ty Lee blurts out. "For letting her come to your birthday. I mean, I don't think she had a very good time, but I did."

Suki smiles and squeezes her shoulder. "It was never about her. It was about you. I wanted you to come, so I was willing to have her there too. And it worked out fine, anyway."

"Yeah," Ty Lee agrees as Suki stands up and starts toward the middle of the room, probably to try out the complicated jump-kick. Ty Lee wonders, not for the first time, if, maybe in another world where Sokka didn't come out of the war, she and Suki ever could have ended up together.

"Oh, Sokka will be visiting next weekend," Suki calls over her shoulder. "We were wondering if you wanted to get together on Friday night. Azula can come. If she wants to. But she has to behave herself, because I don't think it will take very much to convince Sokka that she needs to be taken out."

"Okay," Ty Lee replies without really knowing what she is agreeing to, because she's just felt the familiar, unpleasant pang in her chest at the mention of Sokka's name, and it is the exact same one she felt when Azula mentioned Lok.

Ty Lee likes Sokka. She really does. The three of them get together every time he visits, and Ty Lee always has a good time. He is funny, and charismatic, and a great story-teller. And he is kind. He treats Suki well, which is all Ty Lee really wants for her. She remembers having a thing for him when she was fourteen and not allowed to have a thing for anyone outside of the Fire Nation. He was worthy as an early crush, much less embarrassing than some (Suki's first crush, for instance), and she knows that she and Toph have that in common anyway. Sometimes, Ty Lee hates that she can't hate Sokka, but she has never been able to, and she has long since finished trying.

Sokka greets her with a hug that seems enthusiastic, even for her. Once again, Azula trails morosely behind her, looking like she wants to be here perhaps even less than Sokka and Suki want her here. Sokka looks at her over Ty Lee's right shoulder and nods. "Azula."

Ty Lee turns her head to watch her friend study him, eyebrows drawn together, for a long moment, and then offer the slightest nod in return.

At twenty years old, Sokka has just been named to the council in Republic City. "You could always join me," he tells Suki as they file into the tiny kitchen.

"I think I'm more needed here," she answers. They both know Sokka was barely serious, anyway. Suki will never leave Kyoshi Island, but every time he changes locations, he offers to bring her along in the hopes that she will agree. It has been going on for over two years now.

"Kyoshi Warriors retire at twenty-five," Suki tells her after the third time Sokka asks her and she turns him down, and Ty Lee doesn't understand why. "Maybe then I'll take him up on it, but for now, my life is here."

"So, Ty Lee," Sokka turns to her. She is pushing herself up on the counter to make room for Azula, who seems reluctant to even step through the doorway. "What about you? Any plans for the future?" He waggles his eyebrows. "Any men on the horizon?"

She can feel the heat rising to her face, and she can tell Azula notices, because her eyebrows are slowly wrinkling in thought. Luckily, Sokka does not. "Oh, you know me," she chirps in a voice that she hopes is appropriately breezy and apathetic. "I like to keep my options open."

He shakes his head. "Well, just so you know, if I wasn't with Suki…" he trails off and winks dramatically.

"I think we all know that," Suki states, a broad smile on her face that Ty Lee only sees when Sokka is around. "The fish is done. It's kind of burnt. We're better at catching them than cooking them, unfortunately." Every time Sokka is town, Ty Lee goes to their house for dinner, and every time, whatever they are trying to cook goes horribly wrong. Ty Lee does not understand how two people who have cooked for themselves for so long can be so very bad at it, though Sokka pointed out once that cooking over a fire is very different than cooking in a stove. Something about air currents and how often the coals need to be turned.

"Don't worry about it," Ty Lee replies. "You should see Azula try to make a fruit salad."

Suki and Sokka go very quiet, and it occurs to Ty Lee that it probably looks to them like she is poking a sleeping platypus bear. They know Azula as the mad Princess of the Fire Nation, not the little girl who used to pretend she wasn't crying when she fell out of a tree. Azula shoots her a very dirty look that tells Ty Lee she might have a hard time getting her out of the house again, and then returns to staring determinedly at the floor. Sokka and Suki seem to decide that it is safe to laugh good-naturedly.

"Well, have a seat," Suki tells them. "We only have three chairs. There are never more than three people here for meals." And usually, it is only Suki.

"I'll stand," Ty Lee offers quickly.

"No." Azula's voice surprises all of them. When Ty Lee wheels around to look at her, she is still focused not on the floor, but on the wall to her right, the wrinkled red mark on her neck, which has not faded and Ty Lee now thinks might be the beginning of a scar, just visible above the high collar of her shirt. "I will."

"Thank you, Azula," Ty Lee says, and Azula offers her a quick, stiff, controlled smile, which Ty Lee thinks might have looked more genuine, had they been alone.

Ty Lee takes Azula home early, because Suki and Sokka have not seen each other in four months, and Ty Lee does not want to be in the way (even though she kind of does). "How was that?" she asks as she unlocks the door to their house.

Azula sighs. "Not as terrible as I thought it would be," is her reluctant answer.

They enter the living room in silence. "Well, I'm going to change," Ty Lee calls over her shoulder as Azula stands awkwardly at the side of the couch. Five and a half months and she still does not treat the house like it is hers. "And then you can, I guess."

"Does it bother you?" Azula asks. It is sudden, and her voice is clipped.

Ty Lee stops and turns. "Does what bother me?"

"Seeing Suki," Azula answers. "With Sokka."

"Of course not," Ty Lee replies with a shrug, though she is sure Azula can see the panic on her face. "Why would it?"

Azula narrows her eyes. "Lying doesn't suit you, Ty Lee."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes and continues into the bedroom to change, unsure why she does not want Azula to know. Who is she going to tell, after all?

It does not come up again.

March, 105 AG

Azula still has nightmares. This, Ty Lee knows. They account for the bags under her eyes and the way she is still dragging half an hour after she wakes up, when Ty Lee enters the kitchen. But they are rarely visible. They rarely wake Ty Lee up.

Seven months into Azula's stay on Kyoshi Island, she is screaming. She is tossing so much, her bed mimics the creak of a ship on the ocean. Ty Lee jumps out of her own bed and halfway across the room.

"Azula!" she calls. "Azula, wake up!"

Her friend twists and thrashes within the sheets, and Ty Lee grabs her shoulders and shakes. "Azula!"

Azula's eyes pop open, and they are as wide as the full moon outside the window. Then she is gasping and Ty Lee pulls Azula to her, hugs the Princess' head to her shoulder. She can feel Azula's body heave against her rib cage, a cold sweat that is not her own against her neck. She rubs her friend's back in slow, long strokes, the way she did for Mai after Zuko left four years ago or for Suki when they lost that boy to the Unagi last summer.

They stay like that for several minutes as Azula's panting breaths calm, and then Ty Lee can feel her friend's body stiffen, and she knows Azula has become aware of her surroundings again. She pushes Ty Lee away, and without a word, she lays back down and turns toward the wall, away from where Ty Lee is seated on the edge of the bed, hair tossed over her tear-streaked face like a curtain. Ty Lee sighs, cold at the loss of contact and slightly disappointed. She reaches out and brushes the damp strands of hair off of Azula's cheek, her fingers tingling as they brush across her skin.

"I'm glad you're here, Azula."

She begins to pull her hand back and slide off the bed, when Azula's hand snaps up to grabs hers. Ty Lee feels a hard squeeze, and then the hand is gone, sliding back under the blankets.

Mai arrives on Kyoshi Island three days later. Zuko is supposed to be with her, but he has been called away on an urgent matter in Republic City.

Ty Lee has not seen Mai since she left with Azula more than half a year ago. She and Zuko are too busy to take time off to visit, and no one will ask Azula to return to the palace.

"How is she?" Mai asks, her voice low, almost as soon as she steps off the ship.

"She has nightmares," Ty Lee replies. "But she's doing well."

They have dinner at Ty Lee's that night. Suki joins them, because she and Mai have become… not exactly close, but certainly friendly. Mai glances at Ty Lee knowingly when she arrives.

They settle into the living room, Ty Lee and Azula on the couch, and Mai and Suki on the opposite chairs. Mai studies Azula with interest, while Suki avoids looking in her direction. Instead, she asks Mai if she has seen Sokka recently. Ty Lee finds that it doesn't hurt quite as much as it used to. She can feel the heat radiating off Azula. Their thighs are nearly touching on the couch.

"When are the two of you just going to get married?" Mai asks, with a roll of her eyes.

Suki laughs. "I could ask you the same thing. How long have you and Zuko been together, five years?"

"Only two continuously," Mai answers.

"And engaged for one and a half," Suki points out.

Mai shrugs. "We're not in a hurry. Much to the dismay of Zuko's advisors. They seem to think it reflects poorly on the royal family for me to be using the Fire Lady's seal before we're married. I can't help thinking that's a euphemism for something." She turns to Azula, a mischievous glint in her eye. "What about you, Azula. Found anyone worthy enough yet?"

Azula's frown deepens for a moment before a sinister smile stretches across her face. "No. You see, unlike some people, I have standards."

Mai turns back to Suki, a question about her relationship status with Sokka already crossing her lips. Azula seems to relax, and it strikes Ty Lee as odd that she wasn't in the first place. It is like the comment was forced, like she is trying to live up to a standard she thinks she is supposed to. Ty Lee looks over at her. Their eyes meet for a brief moment before Azula drops her head.

Ty Lee wants to hug her, but she knows that can only end poorly, especially with Mai and Suki in the room, so she settles for laying her hand on top of Azula's, where it rests on her knee, and squeezing. Azula looks back at her, eyes wide, lips parted in surprise. Ty Lee smiles reassuringly at her, and Azula does not pull away.

On the other side of the room, Mai bites back a gasp.

April, 105 AG

It happens on Azula's nineteenth birthday. It has been eight months since she arrived on Kyoshi Island. Ty Lee has been begging her to have a party.

"No one will come," Azula tells her. "No one here likes me."

"Nonsense," Ty Lee replies as she slices fruits and tosses the wedges in a bowl (she is giving Azula a break from making breakfast this morning). "They'll come for me."

"Oh, that changes everything." Azula stares out the window. Where the sun glints through the leaves, lighting the trees up like they are on fire. "I feel so much better now."

"Well maybe if you actually tried being nice to people…" Ty Lee shrugs.

"I'm nice to people," Azula argues.

"No," Ty Lee answers. "You're not mean to people. Big difference. How did you make your friends in the Earth Nation? You talked to them, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, there you go," Ty Lee says, as if that solves all of Azula's problems.

"That's different." Azula sighs. "It wouldn't matter. I imprisoned all your friends. Somehow, I don't expect them to jump at the idea of exchanging recipes."

"Suki forgave you," Ty Lee points out.

"Suki did not forgive me," Azula replies in exasperation, like she is explaining something to a child who is not quite picking it up. "Suki tolerates me. There's a big difference." A pause. "How do you even know Suki has something to forgive me for?"

Ty Lee sighs and lays down the knife. She turns and sets the bowl of fruit in front of Azula before taking the other seat at the table. "She told me. She told me you tortured her."

Azula's eyes widen. "When?"

"Right after we got off the boat."

"You knew?" Azula's voice is a whisper. "You knew this entire time, and you let me stay? You let me share your bedroom?"

"You didn't torture me," Ty Lee answers. "I am angry at you for what you did to her." She takes a breath. "But you're my friend, and you needed help. I wasn't going to let you go back there."

She pushes the bowl of fruit across the table. "I don't deserve this."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes. "Azula, stop being such a drama queen. It's your breakfast. Eat it."

Azula shake her head. "I don't deserve any of this." She turns back toward the window and in an instant, her expression shifts from steadfast determination to absolute horror. Before Ty Lee knows what it happening, Azula has put her fist through the glass.

"Azula, stop!" Ty Lee cries, leaping out of her chair and hurrying to kneel in front of the Princess. Azula is pressing the heels of her hands to her forehand, knuckles bleeding, and beginning to rock back and forth.

"Go away!" she cries. "Leave me alone!"

"Azula, who are you talking to?" Ty Lee takes Azula's fists, sticky with blood, in her hands and drags them away from her face. There are tears gathering in her friend's eyes, threatening to spill over.

"Why didn't he just kill me?' Azula whispers, her voice rough.

"Who?" Ty Lee asks. "Your father?"

Azula shakes her head forcefully. "Zuko."

Ty Lee knits her brows together in confusion. "Why would Zuko kill you?"

"Because I don't deserve to live." She chokes on the last word. "Father says he should have killed me. He says it would have been an honor killing." She laughs, and it sounds too loud and unnatural. "Zuzu was always so obsessed with honor."

"Azula, when were you talking to your father?" Ty Lee asks, her voice urgent.

"He talks to me all the time," she replies. "In my dreams." She blinks and a tear slides down her cheek. "You told me he couldn't get to me here."

Ty Lee sniffles. She can feel moisture in her own eyes. She cups Azula's face between her palms, thumbs skimming her cheekbones, and brings their foreheads to rest against each other. "I know."

She can feel Azula's ragged breathing begin to slow, though tears continue to dampen her hands.

"Why are you doing this?" Azula whispers. "Don't say because we're friends. That's not a good enough reason."

Before she knows what she is doing, Ty Lee presses her lips to Azula's. They are dry and rough against her own, and Ty Lee's nose presses into Azula's cheek as their tears mingle, and maybe she is pushing too hard. She can feel the fronts of Azula's teeth against her lips. And then her mind catches up with her and she pulls away.

Azula's eyes are wide, her cheeks flushed, her mouth hanging open.

"I'm sorry!" Ty Lee squeaks as she stands up and begins to turn to walk away.

Azula catches her hand and she is stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait."

She turns, and Azula is on her feet looking a combination of shocked and confused (but not angry or disgusted, Ty Lee notices). She is opening her mouth and then closing it again, as if frantically trying to speak, but she can't seem to make any words come out. Ty Lee swallows and wrenches her hand free. She crosses the living room in four steps and bursts through the door into the fresh morning air.

A/N: Alright! One part down, two to go. Like I said, this was originally a oneshot, so the entire story is already written. I'm going to wait for some reviews to come in before I post it, because you know once the second chapter goes up, I won't get any more reviews on the first. I'm not going to set a minimum for how many reviews there need to be before I update, because personally, I hate it when people do that (but if you do, more power to you). I will say, however, that Part Two will probably go up sooner the more reviews I get, because I'll be less likely to hold out for stragglers. I don't expect it will be too long either way.

That being said, if you are reading this after the later parts are posted, I would still be thrilled to hear your thoughts on this chapter.