senri
in
bedlam_mix
Avatar: Azula/Ty Lee
Genre: Gen
Warnings: K+
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Notes: Originally written for hello_scorpling in the April Showers gifting meme. Which was then deleted. And I lost everything I wrote for that including a nice Hyakurin+Manji conversation piece that I really wanted to save because I am apparently an idiot rage rage rage rage rant but I rewrote this. More genfic than pairing.
----
Ty Lee is brimful of wicked bad habits. It's not her fault, only it is; the conjunction of boredom and too much energy driving her (and through her, her teachers) insane. She flips her quill and taps her foot and fiddles with her silverware during dining practice (and honestly, who needs to practice how to eat a meal?). For the topper, when none of that will do, she bites her nails to the bloody quick.
Azula disapproves of the whole passel of vices. She has no qualms with airing out her displeasure. Extra quills disappear from Ty Lee's desk, even the ones rolled into the very back corners of the drawers. When she taps her foot during deportment, Azula's foot descends lightly (but the weight of reproof is heavy) on hers. Rearranging knives forks and spoons is met with a stare and wide fixed smile.
And Ty Lee, she finds the princess' hands warm on her own when Azula inspects her gnawed nails. Azula's hands are perfect, like everything else about her. She hasn't even got a writer's callus. Already, she's painting her fingernails burgundy or maroon, and filing them into slight points - Ty Lee can feel the gentle-dangerous push of those points on her skin. And see the ever so much more dangerous expression crossing Azula's face, the slightly evaluating frown.
"Disgusting, Ty Lee," is the verdict. "A vice inappropriate for a representative of the fire nation elite."
For once at a loss for words, Ty Lee shrugs. She isn't sure why she does it, and it's been years since she's even thought of trying to stop.
"Why?" Azula demands, and looks annoyed when Ty Lee has to shake her head. Doing things without a well-plotted reason is an alien idea to the princess.
Azula takes her to the infirmary, for salve and bitter aloes. And when those don't deter she takes matters into her own hands. When Ty Lee lifts her fingers to her lips Azula catches the wayward hand in her own and draws it down, away, warm palm-to-palm together.
---
That summer, Ty Lee's parents gift her with a whole new wardrobe. It's not said but she knows: they're pleased with her for befriending the princess. If she was the type, she'd think about how it was kind of sad, how it took a connection to another person to make her an important person in her family's eyes.
Ty Lee is not the type. She squeals and tries on every new pair of shoes she was given, instead.
---
In the circus, she feels finally like she's found her place. The world and her aura, balanced at last. Homeostasis. Her emotions as smooth and fine as combed hair. Ty Lee could stay there forever. She no longer bites her nails.
Seeing Azula's face again is shocking. She's as sleek, as perfect, as burningly cold as ever, and it's only when the metal-bitter taste of blood touches her tongue that Ty Lee realizes her nails are clamped between her teeth again.
Warnings: K+
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Notes: Originally written for hello_scorpling in the April Showers gifting meme. Which was then deleted. And I lost everything I wrote for that including a nice Hyakurin+Manji conversation piece that I really wanted to save because I am apparently an idiot rage rage rage rage rant but I rewrote this. More genfic than pairing.
----
Ty Lee is brimful of wicked bad habits. It's not her fault, only it is; the conjunction of boredom and too much energy driving her (and through her, her teachers) insane. She flips her quill and taps her foot and fiddles with her silverware during dining practice (and honestly, who needs to practice how to eat a meal?). For the topper, when none of that will do, she bites her nails to the bloody quick.
Azula disapproves of the whole passel of vices. She has no qualms with airing out her displeasure. Extra quills disappear from Ty Lee's desk, even the ones rolled into the very back corners of the drawers. When she taps her foot during deportment, Azula's foot descends lightly (but the weight of reproof is heavy) on hers. Rearranging knives forks and spoons is met with a stare and wide fixed smile.
And Ty Lee, she finds the princess' hands warm on her own when Azula inspects her gnawed nails. Azula's hands are perfect, like everything else about her. She hasn't even got a writer's callus. Already, she's painting her fingernails burgundy or maroon, and filing them into slight points - Ty Lee can feel the gentle-dangerous push of those points on her skin. And see the ever so much more dangerous expression crossing Azula's face, the slightly evaluating frown.
"Disgusting, Ty Lee," is the verdict. "A vice inappropriate for a representative of the fire nation elite."
For once at a loss for words, Ty Lee shrugs. She isn't sure why she does it, and it's been years since she's even thought of trying to stop.
"Why?" Azula demands, and looks annoyed when Ty Lee has to shake her head. Doing things without a well-plotted reason is an alien idea to the princess.
Azula takes her to the infirmary, for salve and bitter aloes. And when those don't deter she takes matters into her own hands. When Ty Lee lifts her fingers to her lips Azula catches the wayward hand in her own and draws it down, away, warm palm-to-palm together.
---
That summer, Ty Lee's parents gift her with a whole new wardrobe. It's not said but she knows: they're pleased with her for befriending the princess. If she was the type, she'd think about how it was kind of sad, how it took a connection to another person to make her an important person in her family's eyes.
Ty Lee is not the type. She squeals and tries on every new pair of shoes she was given, instead.
---
In the circus, she feels finally like she's found her place. The world and her aura, balanced at last. Homeostasis. Her emotions as smooth and fine as combed hair. Ty Lee could stay there forever. She no longer bites her nails.
Seeing Azula's face again is shocking. She's as sleek, as perfect, as burningly cold as ever, and it's only when the metal-bitter taste of blood touches her tongue that Ty Lee realizes her nails are clamped between her teeth again.