EDIT 04/13/09: Pet, Sleep, and Battle are now three seperate posts instead of one big one. They all say they were written 02/24/09.
These were written using the Emote prompt from
avatarx100. I've never written flash fics before so these have been a really interesting exercise. Also, writing Azula is hard. I've tried writing her before, but I never tried as seriously to make her IC as I did in these fics, and I never realized just how difficult a character she is to write.
Title: Pet
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Character(s): Azula, Ty Lee
Pairing(s): None
Rating: K+
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 612
Prompt: Anger
Summery: While Ty Lee mourns the death of her pet, Azula finds her.
Ty Lee rarely got angry because she rarely found anything to be angry about, and when she did get more than mildly annoyed, no one took her seriously. She figured it might be because she cried when she got furious or maybe they thought her too insignificant for her anger to make a difference (because when Azula got angry, people paid attention and bent over backward and tripped over themselves to please her). Ty Lee didn’t know if any of her theories were right; all she knew was that running to anyone, crying and full of rage, wouldn’t change what had happened, and wouldn’t bring any kind of justice.
That was why she knelt alone beside her dead pet, half way up the volcano wall on the outskirts of the Capital City, with her little hands curled into fists and sobbing. The rabbit-dog lay unmoving, a small pool of blood beside its mouth, white coat stained with dirt and blood. One of its front legs twisted at an odd angle.
Ty Lee wiped her hand against her cheek. “Stupid boys.” She bit back another sob. “Stupid…”
“Ty Lee, what are you doing?”
She looked up to see Azula standing beside her, frowning, arms crossed. When Ty Lee didn’t answer, Azula waved a hand toward the dead animal. “What happened to that?”
Ty Lee leapt to her feet. “Don’t talk about Spot like that!” she shouted. “He was my pet!”
Azula stared at her. “Exactly. Was. What happened?”
Ty Lee’s lip quivered. “Some stupid boys!” she burst out, stomping her foot. “They…they…threw rocks at him and hit him with sticks and…” She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
Azula’s lip curled in disgust. She turned around and said, “I’ll get some servants to come bury that thing.”
Less than an hour later, Azula had returned with two servants, a hole dug and Spot buried. Now the two strode through the Capital City on the way to Ty Lee’s house. It was getting late. Only a sliver of sunlight remained.
They passed a group of boys who were laughing and talking loudly. One of them threw Ty Lee a wide grin, and her fists clenched. Azula lazily examined them.
“Are those the boys who killed your pet?” she asked.
“Yes,” Ty Lee said. Tears stung her eyes.
Azula hummed thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. They parted ways at Ty Lee’s house, and Ty Lee trudged up to her room, flopped facedown on her bed and cried herself to sleep.
It felt like only moments later when Ty Lee was shaken awake.
“Ty Lee. Ty Lee, wake up.” That was her mother.
Ty Lee opened her eyes and rolled over. “What is it?”
“Why didn’t you tell us Spot died?” her mother asked, frowning. “Never mind; it doesn’t matter. One of the Palace servants dropped by with this.” Her mother gestured toward the door where her father was standing. Ty Lee gasped and sat up.
In his arms was a magnificent cougar-dog, only a few months old. It had beautiful copper eyes, gorgeous golden fur, and a lean body. It flicked its tail, jumped out of her father’s arms, approached her with a graceful, powerful gait and sat at the edge of the bed. It stared at her indifferently, but when Ty Lee reached out a hand and pat its head, she was rewarded with a deep, loud purr.
Ty Lee didn’t need anyone to tell her Azula had picked it out. Later, when Azula denied doing so, Ty Lee just smiled and hugged her again.
And the next time Ty Lee saw the group of boys, each one sported a large and nasty burn.