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Azula never kissed her in the daylight.
Ty Lee didn’t know when she first noticed that.
Maybe it was the third time, the palace garden, when the sun caught in Azula’s hair like fire made solid, and she stepped back just before their lips could meet.
Or the seventh, when Azula attended one of her circus performances and watched from the shadows, saying nothing afterward except, “You were adequate.”
Or the twelfth, when a nobleman with too much confidence asked Ty Lee to dinner, and Azula pulled her aside, fingers digging into the sleeve.
“Don’t misunderstand,” she had said.
Ty Lee never did.
Or at least, she didn’t think she did.
That was the problem.
Azula was her best friend. One of two, Mai being the other. They had giggled in academy halls, shared secrets behind decorated doors, followed Azula like she was gravity itself. It had never been anything more.
At least, that was what Ty Lee told herself.
Until the day Azula was angry.
Until the door slammed shut behind them.
Until Ty Lee was dragged forward, breath stolen, and Azula’s mouth crashed against hers in a way that silenced any and all protest.
That was when something changed.
Ty Lee still didn’t know what to call that moment. She wasn’t allowed to. Azula had made that very clear.
Mai had noticed something was different. Of course, she had. Mai noticed everything and spoke of nothing.
“It’s fine,” Ty Lee had insisted.
It wasn’t.
Because when she was alone with Azula, the doors locked and the servants were dismissed.
Ty Lee was afraid.
Even now.
She stood outside the princess’s chamber, hands clasped behind her back like a soldier awaiting orders. She had an act scheduled this afternoon. The troupe would be expecting her. The crowd would be waiting.
Azula had demanded her presence instead.
Who was she to deny her best friend, Princess of the Fire Nation?
The door creaked open.
And there she was.
Framed in candlelight, that smirk curved to her mouth; she already knew the outcome of whatever this would become.
“Ty Lee,” Azula said.
Not warm.
Never warm.
“Come inside.”
Ty Lee did as she was told.
The door felt heavier than it should have.
It always did.
She went inside and closed it carefully behind her, the click of the latch echoing louder than it had any right to.
The hallway noise disappeared at once, the distant shuffle of servants, the chatter of the guards, all silenced by the princess’s chambers.
Azula did not move to greet her.
She stood near the center of the room, posture perfect, hands folded behind her back as if she were inspecting a recruit rather than summoning her closest companion.
“You’re late,” Azula said.
“You said immediately.”
“I did.”
The smirk lingered.
Ty Lee clasped her hands together in front of her to stop herself from fidgeting.
“I had rehearsal.”
“And?”
The word wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.
Ty Lee bit her lip, wary of aggravating her.
“And I’m here.”
“Good.”
Azula began to circle her, close enough that Ty Lee could feel the eyes of her presence at her back.
“I heard,” Azula continued, “that a certain lieutenant has taken an interest in you.”
Ty Lee’s heart skipped traitorously loud in the room.
“Oh. That.” She laughed, the way she always did when things felt dangerous. To disarm the tension before it became worse.
“He just asked if I’d like to join him for tea.”
“And you said?”
Azula stopped behind her.
“I didn’t answer.”
“Why not?”
Ty Lee hesitated.
“Because you wouldn’t like it…”
“Because you dragged me into a corner the last time someone asked.”
“Because you said don’t misunderstand.”
“I didn’t think it was important,” Ty Lee ignored the storm of thoughts, the thirteen reasons why she would never be able to move on from this.
Azula’s hand finally moved.
Two fingers lifted a strand of Ty Lee’s braid, letting it slide through her grip.
“Everything about you is important,” Azula murmured.
The words should have felt like they carried compassion.
They didn’t.
A false imitation of love and care, masked behind a girl she knew would accept what this was. Even then, Ty Lee’s pulse fluttered harder. She couldn’t tell if it was anticipation or fear anymore. Maybe both had started to feel the same.
Azula was in front of her now.
“You belong at my side,” she said, as though explaining something simple. “Not across a teacup from some mediocre lieutenant.”
Ty Lee forced a smile.
“Of course.”
Azula’s eyes narrowed at that.
“Of course?”
Ty Lee didn’t know what the right answer was anymore. Agreement was expected. Enthusiasm was suspicious. Distance was unacceptable.
“This,” Azula’s hand caressed Ty Lee’s cheek, her voice almost thoughtful, “has nothing to do with affection.”
“It doesn’t?”
She asked before she could stop herself.
“Don’t misunderstand.”
There it was again.
Ty Lee nodded.
She always did.
But as Azula’s hand settled at her waist, Ty Lee wondered what color her own flames burned if she could have firebending. Would they be regular like everyone elses’? Or different like the blue that had her heart prisoner.
“It’s not about you,” Azula said. “Or girls. Or anything that simple.”
“Then… what is it about?”
“You assume desire is identity,” Azula said. “That it defines something permanent.”
Her eyes glared at Ty Lee.
“I refuse to be defined by something so ordinary.”
Ordinary.
“So this is just—” she tried to keep her tone polite. “Practice?”
“Understanding,” she corrected. “A ruler must understand every form of attachment. Every weakness. Every advantage.”
Ty Lee felt suddenly smaller.
“And I’m… an advantage?”
“If I choose to use you that way. Or you could be a worthless tool if I desire you to be such.”
“So it’s not because you like me?”
Azula snickered, “Don’t be childish. You’re adorable, but I would never love you like you’re imagining.”
The word stung more than Ty Lee expected.
“I don’t like women,” Azula continued calmly. “I don’t ‘like’ anyone. I observe. I test. I refine.”
She lifted Ty Lee’s chin with two fingers.
“You happen to be convenient.”
Ty Lee’s heart thudded so loudly she was sure Azula could hear it.
Convenient.
Azula’s thumb brushed across her lower lip, almost absent-minded.
“If I desired a man,” she went on, “it would mean nothing more than this. I would marry, have children, and continue to rule.”
Her eyes held Ty Lee’s.
“I will not be reduced to a category because of a passing curiosity.”
Ty Lee internally sighed.
“But it keeps happening.”
Something in Azula’s expression changed.
“That,” Azula said, “is my decision.”
Not a confession.
Not an admission.
A declaration of control.
Ty Lee realized then that Azula wasn’t denying attraction because she felt none. She was denying it because to name it would mean it could exist without her permission. And Azula never allowed anything to exist beyond her control.
“Just let me be free, Azula.”
Azula was within a kiss’s touch.
“Don’t misunderstand,” she said again.
But this time, she wasn’t sure she understood at all.
Azula moved.
Her hand caught Ty Lee’s wrist and turned, guiding her backward in a few steps until her shoulders met the wall. The impact wasn’t hard, but it stole the breath from her anyway.
Azula followed.
Close.
Too close.
“You’re thinking too much,” Azula said.
“You said it wasn’t about—”
Azula kissed her.
Her hand pressed flat against the wall beside Ty Lee’s head, the other firm at her waist, holding her in place as if she were anchoring something that might drift.
It wasn’t affection.
It was an assertion of her power over the girl.
The kiss deepened, as if Azula were proving a point only she fully understood. Ty Lee’s hands lifted instinctively, fingers melting into the silk of Azula’s sleeves, not to push her away, but because she didn’t know where else to put them.
Azula pulled back just enough for their foreheads to nearly touch.
“See?” she said. “Nothing.”
Ty Lee’s lips tingled. It didn’t feel like this nothing.
Azula’s thumb brushed along Ty Lee’s cheek, almost thoughtfully.
“If this were about preference,” Azula continued, as if resuming a lecture, “it would require longing. Attachment. Weakness.”
Her eyes dropped briefly to Ty Lee’s mouth.
“I feel none of those things.”
“Then why do you keep doing it?”
“Because I can. And do not confuse access with affection,” she said.
Ty Lee stayed against the wall long after Azula stepped back.
Her heart was still racing.
Her hands were still trembling.
And the worst part? She knew that if Azula crossed the room and demanded it again, she would let her.
Because even if Azula called it nothing…
For her, it was everything.
“Do you love me?”
The words slipped out before Ty Lee could swallow them.
Azula stopped.
“What did you say?”
Ty Lee’s fingers tightened in her sleeves. She forced herself not to laugh it off this time.
“I just—” Her voice trembled despite her effort. “I wanted to know. If it’s nothing… then is it that?”
Azula stared at her as though she had spoken another language.
“Love?”
The word sounded foreign in her mouth. Almost distasteful. But Ty Lee pushed forward anyway.
“You get angry when other people look at me. You pull me away. You—”
“Enough.”
The command cracked through the room like a whip.
Ty Lee flinched.
“Do not project your fantasies onto me,” Azula said.
“I’m not—”
“You are.”
Azula’s eyes were blazing now. That sweet charm she always carried never followed behind closed doors.
“I am not in love with you. I am not in love with anyone. And I am certainly not…” she stopped for a second, “defined by the company I keep.”
“So you’re not—”
“I am not ‘gay.’ I am not anything that can be categorized and whispered about in court corridors. I will not have my authority questioned because someone thinks I favor you for sentimental reasons.”
Ty Lee’s eyes burned, but she forced herself to stay upright.
“So it’s just power,” she said.
Azula didn’t deny it.
“It is control,” she corrected.
“But when you kiss me…”
Azula strode closer again, but this time it wasn’t to claim.
It was to intimidate.
“When I kiss you,” she said, “it is because I choose to. Because I decide what I want to experience. Do not mistake that for longing.”
“And if I said I loved you, again?”
There it was.
The real fracture.
“Then you would be foolish.”
The word hit harder than anger.
“You are confusing proximity with destiny,” Azula continued. “I do not need romance. I do not need validation. And I will not have you trying to tether me to someone like you.”
“Someone like you…” Ty Lee said the words to herself.
“If you cannot separate yourself from childish attachment, then perhaps I misjudged your usefulness.”
That was the cruelest part.
Not rejection.
Evaluation.
“I understand.”
“Good.”
And just like that, the moment was over.
Ty Lee remained where she was, heart aching, lips still tingling from a kiss that apparently meant nothing.
Azula had said she wasn’t anything so simple.
Not gay.
Not in love.
Not attached.
Ty Lee stood very still, hands at her sides, heart aching in a way she didn’t know how to fix.
She had asked for love.
She had been given a correction.
“You’re trembling,” Azula observed.
Ty Lee forced a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“I’m not.”
“This,” Azula said, “is why I told you not to misunderstand.”
“I don’t,” she said.
Azula tilted her head, studying her like a puzzle that had nearly slipped out of place.
“Get on the bed.”
Ty Lee froze.
Not because she didn’t understand.
Because she did.
“Now.”
Ty Lee moved automatically, the way she always had at the academy, the way she had on the circus.
She sat at the edge first.
Azula didn’t like that.
“All the way.”
Ty Lee climbed onto the bed fully, smoothing her leggings straight despite the tremor in her chest.
Azula approached.
“Strip.”
This was not affection.
Not romance.
Not confession.
It was a demand.
Ty Lee’s fingers hovered at the ties of her sash.
For a second, she looked up.
Azula’s face was impassive. Controlled. Untouched by what had just passed between them.
No longing.
No care.
Only desire.
Ty Lee realized then what this was. Azula wasn’t proving desire.
She was proving dominance.
And the most painful part? Ty Lee still wanted her to look like she cared. She wanted Azula to touch her and tell her those words that came so easily to her.
“I love you.”
What she said didn’t matter anymore; both of her hands were pinned to the bed, and the golden eyes of a love that didn’t belong to her were now locked into hers.