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"You want to settle down?" Mai asks, disbelief colouring her voice.
Ty Lee raises her hands in defence and shakes her head rapidly. Her braid almost whips her own cheek. "No, not like that! I don't mean to get married or anything, that's so far away, and I don't even have a boyfriend anyway!"
Mai raises an eyebrow. "Right."
"Right! I just meant that I, um…" For a moment, she looks a little shy, and Mai wonders if she's accidentally making a face that's making Ty Lee feel judged. She tries to school her expression into what she hopes is neutrality, and Ty Lee's shoulders visibly relax.
"I want to move out," Ty Lee declares. Her fingers twiddle together, a habit she never outgrew since childhood. "I want to make my own home, find a place for myself. I want to live in a place that's distinctly me."
Mai's breath hitches.
It's not that she doesn't know about Ty Lee's qualms about her identity. But Ty Lee has always been someone who flitted around depending on her mood—she joined the circus, she attended parties, she became a Kyoshi warrior, on and on and on. Every time they catch up, Mai feels like there's something new going on in Ty Lee's life.
So to hear Ty Lee say with such conviction that she wants to be grounded somewhere, it's, well…
"I won't say I'm not surprised," Mai finally replies. "What about the Kyoshi warriors?"
"I talked to Suki about it. The Kyoshi warriors have no intention of moving off the island, but I don't want to leave them just yet. As of now, I mostly just train with the group and practice my skills. I do more teaching than learning, too, so Suki offered me to become someone like an instructor instead." Ty Lee smiles, clasping her hands together. "She said I'm welcome to drop by and teach chi-blocking classes whenever I'm free. I'm thinking of doing them once a month."
Mai nods, searching Ty Lee's eyes. It's hard to tell when Ty Lee is being genuine about something or simply just smiling for the sake of it, but it's gotten better after the war ended. Ty Lee's joy is palpable, and if she's confident about her decision, then Mai would never fault her.
"Alright," she agrees. "So you'll be moving back to the Fire Nation?"
"Ah, actually, um…" Ty Lee laughs a little awkwardly and Mai narrows her eyes. "I already found a place?"
"...What."
"It's just a small one! I swear I would've told you, but it all happened so fast, and the offer was too perfect for me to reject—"
"Ty Lee," Mai interrupts. "It's fine. I'm happy for you."
Ty Lee takes a deep breath. "Yes, of course. Thank you, Mai." She reaches for her braid, fiddling with the ends, and Mai watches the action out of the corner of her eye. "Actually, there's one more thing I need to ask you."
She gestures at her. "What is it?"
"It's no pressure at all, but the place I got is actually big enough for two people. So, well, sorry this is so sudden, but would you want to move in with me?"
It's the most impulsive decision Mai has ever made, and Mai is not known to be so reckless.
She isn't sure what took over her when Ty Lee made her request, but Mai agreed in the blink of an eye. Perhaps it was the way Ty Lee sounded so anxious, like she was already bracing herself for rejection, and Mai would rather die than let Ty Lee feel that way, especially in regards to her.
(Mai has always gone along with Ty Lee's whims. Call it a lack of a backbone, but Mai knows how to stand up for herself, so she knows it's not that.)
A few weeks later, Mai finds herself entering the apartment for the first time. Her things are still outside waiting to be brought in, and the place is still barren, but when Ty Lee skips into view, she lights up the entire area.
"This will be the living room," Ty Lee explains, dancing around the place. She spins on her tippy toes before leaning onto the wall. "We should paint, too. The lack of colour breaks my soul."
"Nothing too bright," Mai admonishes. "It'll hurt my eyes."
Ty Lee's giggles follow her as she takes a little tour through the house. It's far smaller than what Mai is used to, especially after growing up in a place that felt so desolate from how big and empty it was. This house, however, seems more humble.
Mai can actually picture making this her home.
"Do you want this room or the other?" Ty Lee asks from behind her, resting her chin on Mai's shoulder as they peek into one of the bedrooms. "I think they're the same size. The windows are different, though."
"You can take the one with more light," Mai says, and pretends the tickle of Ty Lee's breath on her neck doesn't make her heart skip. "Let's get the furniture settled."
"We're not getting a pink couch."
"It's like you hate me."
Living together with Ty Lee is simple.
Maybe Mai shouldn't be surprised, but she is. Being on the move with Ty Lee and Azula back when they were younger didn't feel like this, and back then, they had every accommodation in the world right at their fingertips. Yet, somehow, living with Ty Lee in a tiny house has Mai feeling like she can breathe easy.
She still works at the flower shop, though she has to travel more now, so she's been waking up earlier. Whenever she does, she finds Ty Lee in the living room locked in a meditation pose, her back straight and her eyes closed. She always tries to walk extra quietly when that happens, but Ty Lee senses her every single time without fail, and she'll open her eyes to greet Mai with a charming smile.
It's a new routine, and it's perfect.
Still, both of them have their own space. Mai's only been in Ty Lee's bedroom a few times—an explosion of pink and orange hues that she expected to find baffling, but is surprisingly bearable to look at. Ty Lee had picked out a sunset colour scheme for herself, and going into her bedroom feels like unwinding at the end of the day, soft and slow.
So despite living in the same house, it's not very visible that they're living together.
Zuko comes over to visit one day with Sokka in tow. They're seated on the couch—a soft peach colour, a compromise between Ty Lee's desire for more pink and Mai's desire to not have her eyes crucified whenever she gets home—nursing cups of tea that Mai prepared, when Sokka says, "I don't know how to explain it, but this place is very much Ty Lee."
Mai sits across from them on a bean bag and shrugs. "It's her place. I'm just living in it."
"Really? Don't you pay?"
"I mean, I do, but." She hesitates. "Are you trying to say I don't take up enough space?"
Sokka hums. "Kind of. Obviously, you can do whatever you want, but it's you and Ty Lee's home. Not just Ty Lee's."
She takes a moment to think about it. Sure, she let Ty Lee choose the majority of the furniture, and the magnets on the fridge are all Ty Lee's, and there are pictures hanging around that Ty Lee bought, but…
Mai has never thought of bringing her own stuff into their shared space. She has her own room, after all. And she's just never felt the desire to collect little trinkets and decorate like Ty Lee does.
"Do you think Ty Lee minds?" she asks, her words unsure and slow.
She looks to Zuko for his opinion, who seemed deep in thought since the conversation started. "Well, if there's one thing I know about Ty Lee, it's that she makes her likes known. I think sharing parts of herself is how she opens up. What's that phrase again? Like the way she speaks love..?"
"Love language?" Sokka guesses.
"Yeah, exactly!" Zuko turns back to her, smiling. "What Sokka said. You don't have to do anything, but maybe making it seem like you actually live here would help Ty Lee feel more at ease."
Mai chews on her bottom lip. She doesn't think that Ty Lee is particularly uncomfortable with the state of their home, but now that it's been pointed out, Mai can't help but notice the distinct lack of herself in this place.
But she's not going to start hanging her knives on the walls, as funny as that may be.
"I get it," she says. "I didn't know it was so obvious. I'll work on it."
"Aw, look at you, so mature and considerate—" Sokka begins with a smirk. Mai kicks him in the shins and he yelps.
She starts off with a simple act, one she knows like the back of her hand—she brings home flowers.
It's a bouquet of hyacinths, its deep purple colour matching well with the brown of their dining table. Mai places it in a vase and leaves it in the living room, waiting for Ty Lee to come home. When she does, she lets out an excited little gasp and races towards the vase, fawning over the flowers.
Mai is sort of taken aback by how much Ty Lee likes the flowers. She gets a suffocating hug and a squeal for it, and she didn't know that such a simple act could incite such a response, but she makes a mental note to continue doing so.
Every few weeks, Mai replaces the vase of flowers with a new bouquet. She doesn't think much about what flowers she's bringing home other than whether she thinks Ty Lee will like them or not.
As time passes, it extends to more than just one bouquet of flowers. Mai brings home a few potted succulents next and hangs them in the living room. They're small enough to not feel obtrusive, but still a pop of colour that elevates the look of their living room. They're easy to take care of, too, and Ty Lee likes to tap on the pots and watch them swing sometimes when she's passing by.
And then it moves on to furniture. Mai gets a pillow shaped like a turtle duck shell that Ty Lee hugs whenever she sits on the couch. She buys a teapot set from a visit to the Earth Kingdom that has a dragon-shaped snout, and they use it every night when either of them can't sleep.
Mai starts leaving her things in the living room, too. Her black hair ties are tossed onto the coffee table, mingling with Ty Lee's pink ones. She puts her bag on the dining chairs when she gets home and only brings them into the room when she needs them. And maybe she's imagining it, but she swears Ty Lee has gotten brighter, walking around the house with a subtle smile on her face.
Mai doesn't say it, but Ty Lee's joy will always make her happy. Especially the kind that's undoubtedly real.
It's late at night when Ty Lee finishes pouring them two cups of tea, and she sits across from Mai in the living room to say, "I know what you're doing."
Mai pauses from where she's picking a cup up. "What?"
"Your things." Ty Lee gestures around—to the plants, the pillows, the general decor. "I don't mind at all, of course. I just wanted to know what prompted you to do this?"
Mai's cheeks flush lightly. She didn't think she'd actually be caught, but Ty Lee once again proves herself to be observant.
"It's stupid," she deflects, looking away.
Ty Lee shakes her head. "Nothing's stupid."
"...Fine. I just thought that you share so much of yourself with me, and I don't really share much with you in return. I was trying to make this place look like our home more." She takes a sip of tea to avoid looking at Ty Lee's eyes for too long, which are wide and sparkling. "I can stop."
"Please don't," she laughs, standing up to join Mai on the couch. Their shoulders press together and Mai purses her lips at the way her heart leaps. "I really like it! I like seeing signs of you everywhere."
She leans in closer, her breath fanning across Mai's steadily reddening cheek. "I like you, Mai. Thanks for all this."
"Stop it," Mai grumbles, shoving Ty Lee away. She barely even budges. "You don't have to point it out. It's embarrassing."
Ty Lee's laughter rings in the air, sweet and melodic, and Mai's chest pangs with an old ache that never quite went away even after all these years. Her lips part, words of secret affection almost spilling out, but she swallows them back in at the last second and sticks to watching Ty Lee smile instead.
It's enough for now. Mai holds her cup tighter in her palms, feeling the warmth seep to her skin, and feels incredibly content in hers and Ty Lee's shared home.