Chapter Text
Again. He was leaving again, his new friends and new ideals taking precedence over her. The boy her parents had wanted her to marry. Mai felt the clench in her gut, stab of hurt in her chest, and took control. Shuriken ready, she faced the girl whose cruelty had taught her to bury all vulnerability. Maybe this wasn’t about Zuko so much as it was about herself - standing up for the little girl she had been before Azula. He wasn’t worth dying for. But Mai was. And she would make sure Azula suffered before the end.
When Ty Lee disarmed Azula, Mai couldn’t hide her reaction. Shock, at being chosen first. Fear, for her truest friend. Gratitude, awe, and something else. All immediately hidden out of necessity, with the back-up shuriken she knew she would need soon. Grey eyes met hers and she couldn’t look away.
--
The cell was only nominally different from the one Zuko had locked her in earlier. She quietly noted all points of access and located herself in the building based on the maps of the prison her uncle had shown her. Taking stock of her remaining blades, she turned her attention to the girl who had risked everything for her.
Ty Lee’s shoulders were shaking slightly, but Mai knew better than to mistake her friend’s sweetness and soft aesthetic for weakness. No one survived Azula except warriors. When Mai took Ty Lee’s hand, their calluses slid together, testaments to their strength.
“Thank you.” Mai tried to pour everything into two words and their locked gaze - the magnitude of Ty Lee’s sacrifice, her sorrow for their lost childhoods, the way Ty Lee’s choice filled an empty space Mai was used to ignoring. Her fierce desire to protect her friend through the difficulties ahead. And something else that felt new and old at the same time, too fragile to look at directly.
Ty Lee didn’t break their gaze. She had always played with people’s biases, turning their disdain against them after they underestimated her. Her sweetness was a superpower and an act of defiance, much like that of the young airbender. Both of them knew pain intimately, and deliberately chose joy. Mai felt something slot into place. Ty Lee’s laughter was the throughline, brightness in a nation of black and red. “I’m not leaving you, Mai. You don’t have to do this alone.”
Too hot, stupid tears. One slipped out before Mai could clamp down on the rising emotion. She knitted her brows and pursed her lips, holding it together - when Ty Lee’s fingers brushed her cheek. The gentleness hurt too much. Zuko’s rages, Azula’s cutting comments and casual violence, her parents’ desire for an obedient daughter, were safe because they were known. If Mai didn’t expect anything else, it didn’t have to hurt. She didn’t need people to know her or care about her or protect her, so it didn’t matter. But to receive tenderness, and need it, meant all the times she’d gone without had been real. And they surged up and out of the places in her body she had contained them, in jerking sobs that stabbed in all the soft places. She collapsed and curled into a ball, self-hatred drawing its blade as Azula had trained it to.
But a warm arm wrapped around her, and the smell of lavender was in her face, and deft fingers wove through her hair. Shivers of - a good sensation, something nice - radiated across her skin, and Ty Lee’s musical voice was murmuring something Mai was too tired to understand but could feel. “It’s okay to cry, Mai. It’s okay. I’m here with you. You don’t have to hold it in.”
When the tears tapered off, Mai felt lighter. More vulnerable but not so afraid, because Ty Lee’s hand hadn’t let go. She was a snotty, red-eyed mess, she was sure, but Ty Lee didn’t look away. The acrobat tore off a piece of her shirt and wiped Mai’s face, then kissed both cheeks before Mai could process it. She must be in the spirit world - she and Ty Lee had turned against Azula, they were still alive, and Ty Lee had just kissed her?
“You are my best friend, Mai. We will get through this together.” Ty Lee’s hand resumed its caresses through Mai’s hair, spreading the sweet tingling sensation all across her skin. “We need to rest now. We’ll make plans tomorrow, okay? Let’s sleep. It’s going to be okay.” She smiled and Mai suddenly realized why boys always wanted to hold doors open for her happy friend. She felt tremors in her spine and realized she’d never felt so vulnerable in her life. But Ty Lee’s touch somehow kept that vulnerability from being dangerous. Mai was safe and unguarded. It was too new to make sense of. She nodded and closed her eyes.
--
She woke up to the smell of lavender. A shining rope of hair was in her field of vision for some reason? And - Ty Lee was curled up in Mai’s arms? Mai bit her lip. It hadn’t been a dream. This was happening. Ty Lee snuggled closer, pulling Mai’s arm around her waist. She felt completely soft and protected, even though they were in prison? Mai’s quick mind commented that with Ty Lee by her side, there were few enemies they couldn’t defeat. And the most dangerous one was far away and never wanted to see them again. Mai breathed in deep. She would watch the door and consider escape plans while her friend slept. And if the closeness felt like Ember Island waters on a perfect day, that was okay, too.
--
“I have a really important secret to tell you, Mai. We can’t tell anyone else, okay?” Mai narrowed her eyes and nodded sharply. They were stretching and counting the intervals between shifts in the guards. “My family isn’t actually from the Fire Nation.” Ty Lee worried her lower lip with her teeth and stepped closer, whispering in Mai’s ear. “I’m an Air Nomad. And I might be an airbender.” Ty Lee’s breath brought the shivery sensation back, scattering over Mai’s skin. That was definitely not why Mai stepped in closer, peering into Ty Lee’s eyes. Right?
“All the Air Nomads are dead, Ty Lee. What are you talking about?” She wanted to speak softer words, words that would caress Ty Lee’s spirit. But sarcasm was another of her shurikens, sharp words always at the ready. She lifted her hand to Ty Lee’s neck, trying the massaging motion her mother used when Tom-Tom was upset.
“We had to let the world think that. When Sozin attacked the temples, the nomads who were abroad had to go into hiding immediately. My great-grandmother hid in the Earth Kingdom with a few other survivors. Three of my sisters are airbenders, and I probably am, too.” Mai gazed into blazing grey eyes and felt her world shift on its axis once again.
“You’ve fought for the Fire Nation, though. Your whole life.” Mai tried to soften her words so they would feel like Ty Lee’s did - firelilies on the skin.
“Azula would have killed me otherwise, Mai. She almost burned me alive when I tried to stay with the circus. And we needed someone in the Caldera, someone in the inner circle. No one suspects an airheaded flirt could be a spy.” Mai tightened her jaw, remembering Zuko calling Ty Lee a ‘circus freak.’
“Okay. I believe you.” Mai closed her eyes and thought quickly. “Do you want to find your family? The other nomads?”
“Now that I’m officially an enemy of the Fire Nation, we’re better off joining the resistance. Do you remember when I taught you tightrope?” Mai’s eyes crinkled and she cracked a smile at the memory.
“I remember falling in the fountain - again. Why did you and Azula always try to get me wet?” Ty Lee giggled and Mai hunched her shoulders in shame at the unintended innuendo. Quickly she deflected, “Yes. I can cross the gondola wires. The next group of prisoners should arrive in four days, if my uncle hasn’t changed his plans. We’ll need a ship to get off the island. I broke out of the other cell pretty easily, and this one follows the same principles. We should leave right after midnight; the guard on night shift is lazy.”
Ty Lee hugged her close and Mai’s body felt like one big sigh of relief. The soft curves and inner strength of her best friend were comforting, familiar, and spurred the upward surge of that strange new feeling. Mai closed her eyes, thinking that Ty Lee seemed to have turned into the Avatar - she was calling waves and fire in Mai’s body, and she’d always moved like the wind.
“I’m so glad you’re safe, Mai. You’re so smart. I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone but you.”
Mai swallowed the lump in her throat; Ty Lee’s freedom with compliments had always made her popular but Mai knew that she meant them all. Ty Lee really did see good in the world everywhere she looked, finding and expanding joy wherever she went. With Azula, Mai took the role of the pessimist and Ty Lee the idealist, their natural tendencies warped to extremes in the princess’s orbit. Mai’s practicality had become dour and Ty Lee’s kindness became saccharine. Without Azula, maybe Mai could let herself feel and express again. She had a feeling there were some things she was going to need to say to Ty Lee at some point.
--
Escaping the Boiling Rock and stealing a motorized lifeboat was easy, of course. If Zuko (and his surprisingly capable new friends) could do it, she and Ty Lee certainly could. Especially since Zuko et al. wouldn’t have made it out without Mai in the first place.
The lifeboat was a downgrade from the opulence they were accustomed to as Azula’s sidekicks, but neither of them knew how to steer a ship and they didn’t have Azula’s station to command a crew’s obedience. Mai glanced at their prison robes and the humble vessel and pressed her lips together. She might have complained about the boredom of court life before, but this was - probably her karma, honestly. Ty Lee had mentioned something about it before, back when Mai had been with Zuko and had gotten into the habit of tuning out her friend. She sighed. Looked like she was going to be following in her ex-boyfriend’s footsteps, slumming it with peasants and conspiring against the Fire Nation. Joy.
Ty Lee glanced back at her and rolled her eyes. “Mai, your aura’s going murky again. Stop being so negative, silly!” Mai couldn’t help but notice all the shades of brown in her friend’s braid, and the baby hairs that had escaped around her face. She bit her lip and prayed to Agni she wasn’t blushing. “Aw, there you go! Nice and pink,” Ty Lee smiled and turned back to steering.
“Do you - need a break?” Mai asked, feeling small and awkward but wanting to do something kind for the friend who brought sweetness wherever she went. She twirled a shuriken in her fingers and glanced out of the corner of her eye.
“Thanks, Mai! In a little bit. The wind feels so good on my face!” Ty Lee closed her eyes and beamed, letting the sun kiss her face. Mai wanted to - be a sunbeam kissing Ty Lee’s face? Holy flames of the eternal Sun, this was humiliating. She shuddered and clenched her fists. But Ty Lee’s joy seemed to loosen the tightness in Mai’s shoulders and the wind was just right, so Mai decided to try and let the little girl in her be happy. That was why she had stood up to Azula, anyway, for the open-hearted child she had been. That child would have loved the sea breeze. So Mai breathed in the fragile freedom of her new life.
--
Ty Lee figured out new hairstyles and outfits for them quickly; it was a simple matter of robbing a store and taking a shuriken to their hair. They never did see any wanted posters for their capture; apparently the warden and prison guards hadn’t wanted to risk Azula’s wrath by informing the princess of their escape.
After a weird moment with a truly disgusting animal, they fell into the bounty hunting business quite easily. It had the nicer elements of their time chasing the Avatar, without the drawbacks. There was the exhilaration of the chase, of letting her skills shine, without the constant dread of Azula’s violence. And also they were kind of good people now, only hunting villains instead of a bunch of kids. (And apparently Ty Lee had been good all along? Her goodness was like pentapox - it made Mai itch and seemed highly contagious.) Fighting bad guys felt better to Mai’s heart, which kept softening each night she slept curled around Ty Lee. They saved up to pay for their journey to Ty Lee’s family. It was a lot of change at once, but Mai had always been quick and you didn’t survive Azula without learning how to pivot.
Ty Lee was a better kisser than Zuko, of course. She’d had a lot more practice (Mai had had to ask Ty Lee for tips because the prince kept biting her lip) and was, to Mai, superior to Zuko in all possible respects.
Their first kiss was in a lake at sunset, where Ty Lee suggested they cool off after a day of tracking. Jun was at a seedy tavern, as usual. Mai felt the lake supporting her effortlessly and thought she might understand that waterbender a little better. A month ago she would never have deigned to swim in anything less than an Ember Island beach or a royal pool. But the golden light angled through a dozen different shades of green, and Ty Lee glowed. The thrum of a dragonbee drew Mai’s narrowed gaze as the insect flew close to Ty Lee’s head, then to Mai, and back again.
“I think it’s trying to tell us something!” Ty Lee beamed - shyly? Mai was calculating how fast she would need to move if the dragonbee tried to sting Ty Lee. “The dragonbee is the symbol of a river spirit of sweet healing waters. She is a goddess of love and beauty.” Mai quirked her lip in a half-smile; this goddess sounded like Ty Lee’s patron spirit.
Her eyes widened as Ty Lee swam closer. The sky was so blue Mai wondered if she might float up into it - the water and the heavens looked the same. What was happening? Ty Lee bit her lip and Mai’s eyes followed it. Then soft lips were on hers and Ty Lee’s curves pressed against her and she tasted like honey and nothing hurt. There was none of the anger and sorrow and heaviness Zuko carried, the burning that was always in the back of his throat every time they kissed. Just the fierce sweetness of the girl who had loved her their whole lives, in so many ways, and now one more.