Chapter Text
On Ty Lee’s first day of school at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, she and her sisters sobbed the entire way there. Their poor mother was overwhelmed by the seven small girls wailing at the same time and pulling at her skirt.
The sisters eventually calmed down, looking around curiously while their mother spoke to the teacher but Ty Lee felt like she was part of a spectacle as the other children gawked and pointed at the family as if they were part of a freak show. As the only septuplets in the entire country, the Ty sisters naturally drew attention wherever they went. Ty Lee hated going anywhere with all of her sisters for that reason alone.
When they began their classes, Ty Lee’s teachers didn't remember her name at all and constantly confused the sisters for each other, despite them each having their own colour-coded ribbons in their braids to differentiate them.
Ty Lee felt very small and insignificant in this scary, new world, surrounded by other six year olds from elite families. She missed her mother already. Eventually, her sisters ran off and quickly made their own friends but everyone seemed to ignore Ty Lee who was quiet and anxious, standing by herself.
Everyone, that is, except for one other student who was watching her intensely from across the playground. This girl had dark, almost black, straight hair pulled into a tight topknot and playful, amber-colored eyes that looked a little feral. She was flanked by a taller raven-haired girl with a fringe and porcelain skin who always had a sour expression.
The girl with the sharp, golden eyes didn’t say anything to Ty Lee or approach her but during afternoon classes, she felt a sharp tug on her braid and whipped her head around to see her sitting a few rows behind Ty Lee snickering, beside her same friend she seemed to always be with. Ty Lee pouted and wished she never had to go to this awful place.
The next day was more fun as her classmates began to be friendlier toward Ty Lee. However, the same girl who had pulled her hair from before was still staring at her weirdly for some reason from time to time. Whenever Ty Lee looked back at her, she would turn away as if embarrassed at being caught and the smaller brunette thought it was strange.
In the middle of writing her notes, a tiny flame landed on her book out of nowhere and Ty Lee shrieked, quickly struggling to put out the fire much to the amusement of her classmates who giggled loudly at the unfolding drama.
Their teacher cast a stern gaze around the room, her eyes narrowed as she tried unsuccessfully to figure out who the culprit behind the prank was. Ty Lee immediately glanced behind her at the same girl with the topknot from before who only smirked back at her wickedly, stifling her laughter.
Thankfully, the mean girl left her alone, or so it seemed, after that. Ty Lee didn’t tell anyone about what had happened to her, not even her sisters, but she couldn’t figure out why the golden-eyed girl didn’t like her and that bothered her.
Then one day, Ty Lee was chatting with her new friends and showing them the way she had taught herself how to do a handstand when someone gave her a hard shove and she lost her balance, falling onto her butt painfully. She groaned. Sure enough, the mean girl was back.
That’s it!
Ty Lee was nice but she was no pushover and she had enough. The light brown-haired girl had angry tears at the corners of her eyes when she rounded on her bully, preparing to give her a piece of her mind. Ty Lee was inwardly petrified, especially as her tormentor could probably burn her braid off or worse if she made her mad enough but she put on a brave front.
“Hey! Just who do you think you are?!” She shouted.
Ty Lee didn’t lose her temper too often but when she did, her family knew to watch out. The smug expression left the girl’s face and she looked completely stunned when she shoved her back just as hard and was thrown off balance, landing in an undignified heap. The mean girl’s friend with the straight bangs and impassive face was watching and began to laugh instead of helping her. Ty Lee’s tormentor just scowled, her face turning pink.
Once she had composed herself, she leapt up and strutted towards Ty Lee with her chest puffed out and an imperious aura, as if she was the boss of the school yard. Ty Lee looked up nervously but decided that she wasn’t going to back down.
“How dare you!” The girl snarled.
“Why don’t you just leave me alone?”
“You - you - I command you to leave my school forever!” The other cried furiously, pouting and crossing her arms over her chest. Forgetting about how angry and upset she was, Ty Lee covered her mouth and couldn’t help but giggle at the girl’s very serious expression. The mean girl became more flustered when she was laughed at. “Leave!”
“Why?” The brunette asked, blinking at her curiously.
“Just because.” She was refusing to look up at Ty Lee and her cheeks were turning red.
“Cause you’re too pretty to be here,” She whispered, looking around frantically as if to make sure no one else could hear her. “So just leave my school and don’t come back!”
“Oh,” Ty Lee replied, surprised. “You think I’m pretty?”
Her stomach fluttered at the thought. People always fawned over all of the Ty sisters as a group but no one had ever told her that before about just herself on her own. She walked away musing on this and went back to her friends, ignoring the other girl’s angry shouts and demands for her to return and fight. Her friends who had been watching the entire scene play out from a distance were staring at her in shock.
“Ty Lee, don’t you know who that girl is?!” One of the girls gasped, a terrified look on her face. “That’s the Princess of the Fire Nation and you pushed her! Nobody does that to the princess!”
“P-princess?”
Ty Lee had always been a little ditzy and she wasn’t always good at remembering important details. Everyone in the nation vaguely knew about the royal family but she had no idea what they actually looked like in person.
Suddenly, the haughty, regal aura of her bully made sense. She hadn’t realized the princess was actually in her class. A nervous, light-headed feeling came over her when she thought about what she had just done.
“Oh no… ”
A year passed and surprisingly the princess never bothered Ty Lee again after that incident but she did often seem to be watching her and somehow coincidentally showing up wherever the brunette went during school hours. If Ty Lee didn’t know better she would think that the princess was actually following her around.
One day, Ty Lee’s father happened to be meeting with Prince Ozai to discuss some important matter and brought all the girls along with him to the palace after school, saying something about how it would be good for them to get to know the royal family.
When the Ty sisters weren’t learning how to be perfect Fire Nation ladies, they spent most of their time being shuffled between the houses of their parents’ friends who were ministers and extremely rich people whose names Ty Lee could never remember, then forced to play with their bored, spoiled kids. They had met other nobles before but the palace was a completely different experience and her sisters were thrilled to be going.
Ty Lee, on the other hand, was terrified that everyone would find out she had offended the Crown Princess. Would her family disown her? Would the Fire Lord himself banish her? She had been so stupid.
After the adults had left them alone in the fancy entryway to the palace, she was practicing her cartwheels by herself while her sisters chatted among themselves when she heard footsteps and the princess herself appeared, standing before her. Ty Lee paled, sure that the girl would scream when she recognized who Ty Lee was, maybe tell her father what the other girl had done to her and then she would be in big trouble.
“You - you’re that girl!” She glared, strutting over to Ty Lee with hands on her hips. “What are you doing in my palace?!”
“Um yeah, that’s me!” Ty Lee shrank back, scratching the back of her head with a sheepish expression. She supposed there was no way of getting out of this. “Sorry about you know... what happened last time, by the way…” Please don’t burn my face off...
The princess just smirked at this but didn’t seem overly angry.
“Perhaps I have not introduced myself properly, though I’m sure you’ve already heard of me,” She drawled with an air of sophistication and held out her hand for Ty Lee to shake like an adult would. “I am Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation and this is my best friend, Mai. And you are?”
“Hi!” She squeaked, bowing before her and then shaking her hand. Azula had such a firm grip. “It’s nice to meet you, Your Highness. I’m Ty Lee!”
Azula studied the light brown-haired girl for a long time, her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to figure out something and then glanced over at Mai pointedly. The two shared a conspiratorial look then Mai nodded at her.
“Well, Ty Lee,” Azula continued dramatically, “We want to invite you to join our small, elite group but we only allow the strongest girls to be friends with us. What valuable skills do you have?”
“Um,” Ty Lee thought hard, realizing she would have to prove herself worthy to the Fire Nation heir and her dull-faced second-in-command. Ty Lee wasn’t good at school work, she wasn’t a bender and she didn’t really know much about fighting or using weapons. “I can juggle and climb really tall trees and read the stars and um... I can fit into really small spaces!”
“Hmm,” Azula grunted. She and Mai didn’t look very impressed but Azula seemed to think it over and eventually smiled at her approvingly. “I see. Agility is an important strength for soldiers to have. Perhaps, you may play with us for now. On a trial basis, of course. Congratulations.”
Ty Lee beamed at them, bouncing on her heels, as she felt like she had passed a very important test that she had never signed up for. Even though she hadn’t planned on being their friend, the other two strange, reticent girls seemed fascinating to her.