#maybe i’ll save the rest for mailee week….. hmmm

[backhurtyy]

ummm how about matchablossom or mailee + 18?💕

18 - willow by taylor swift

the more that you say, the less i know

wherever you stray, i follow

im begging for you to take my hand, wreck my plans

For all that she pretended to be ditzy and thoughtless, Ty Lee never made a single decision without thinking it all the way through. She analyzed it down to every possible consequence, every minute detail, every tiny ripple in her life it could cause. Only once she was satisfied she’d thought of every outcome— so quickly that it barely seemed she’d given it any thought at all— did she pick the best one and act.

It was a system, and it worked, and nothing could make her decide on things differently.

Except for when Mai was involved.

Because when Mai was involved, then she really was ditzy and thoughtless. She acted irrationally, without thinking, without analyzing, without breaking things down. So long as what she did helped Mai, or brought her back to Mai, or kept her at Mai’s side, she didn’t care what she did.

That was the thing about being in love with someone since childhood, she’d learned. Decisions always seemed to end up skewed in their favor.

And looking back at her life, all of the biggest decisions Ty Lee had made, and the ones involving the least amount of thought, circled back to Mai somehow.

She’d only run away and joined the circus because Mai told her it was a good idea. She’d only been able to betray Azula at Boiling Rock because Mai had the courage to do it first. She’d only become a Kyoshi Warrior because Mai encouraged her. Time and time again, Mai was at the center of everything she did.

Mai was captivating, the star that Ty Lee orbited around, with a gravity to her that Ty Lee couldn’t escape even if she wanted to.

And now, Mai seemed determined to change her life once again, appearing in front of her right as she was finishing her shift with her hand out and an expectant look on her face. The gesture was unmistakable in its meaning, but Ty Lee was still surprised when the first thing Mai said was, “Come with me.”

Ty Lee blinked once, then grabbed Mai’s outstretched hand. She had no clue where they were going, and she was exhausted after following Zuko around all day and had been looking forward to collapsing into her bed to sleep, but it didn’t matter. She’d known from the moment Mai showed up and held out her hand that she was going to go with her, no matter how it wreaked her plans for the evening.

Mai smiled, the small but genuinely happy kind she reserved just for Ty Lee, and started leading them down the hall, never making any move to drop Ty Lee’s hand.

“Where are we going?” Ty Lee finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“You’ll see,” Mai responded cryptically. She took a complicated series of turns down the winding red halls, but Ty Lee was familiar enough with the palace after so long that she knew they were heading towards one of the secret exits.

She raised an eyebrow. “We’re sneaking out? What for?”

There was no reason, after all; Zuko didn’t care where they went, Ty Lee wasn’t on shift anymore, and no one was going to look at Mai with her knives and scowl and pointed eyeliner and tell her she couldn’t go wherever she wanted.

Mai shrugged and finally looked over her shoulder at Ty Lee, a glimmer of what Ty Lee could only describe as mischief in her eyes. “Just for old times sake. I mean, how many times did we sneak out as kids?”

Ty Lee grinned, remembering how they’d gotten caught a thousand times over after failing to stifle their giggles as they snuck out to get sweet rolls from the city. Everyone had always assumed Ty Lee was the mastermind encouraging them to sneak out, and she’d never corrected them, but in reality it had always been Mai; just another example of how Ty Lee failed to make good decisions when Mai was involved.

Although, with Mai’s hand in hers now and the memory of her laughter as a kid in her ears, Ty Lee wasn’t sure how Mai could be anything but a good decision.

She just laughed and squeezed Mai’s hand once. “Are there going to be sweet rolls involved?”

“Amongst other things.”

Ty Lee hummed once, curiosity growing with every cryptic response, but she didn’t pry anymore— she just let Mai continue leading the way, content to follow her wherever she went. So long as Mai kept holding on to her hand, she didn’t care what the plan was.