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thiscryptidischronicallyyours · 1 month ago

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At some point, aka like over half a year later, there is in fact an accompanying fic that I wrote ages ago and never actually did anything with…

Paint Me Red and White and Wrap Me in Green

“You’re not dressed yet.” Ty Lee said, looking more than a little put out as she swept into the room. Azula’s gaze flicked up from the book she’d been absently flipping through for the better part of the morning.

“I didn’t see the point. It’s not as if I’m going anywhere,” she answered, cocking her head toward the door and the guards stationed beyond the threshold. It had been pointed out to her multiple times over that the guards were there for her own protection as much as —if not more than anyone else’s.

Ty Lee sighed, she swept past Azula and headed in the direction of the princess’s closet. Wasting no time, she sifted through the choices and slid a silky, and thankfully simple green robe out. She laid it out on Azula’s bed for her, “The point isn’t dressing for ceremony or appearances, Zula. It’s to make you feel more,” she paused, pursing her lips to find the right words before setting on,”—like yourself.”

Azula snorted. “I think the problem is that none of us know who that’s supposed to be anymore.” She loosened the fastenings on her dressing gown, letting it fall to the floor in a heap before wrapping Ty Lee’s choice around her shoulders. The material draped loosely and as it shifted gave Ty Lee teasing glances of her navel, collarbones, and everything in between.

With greater resolve than she particularly wanted to display, Ty Lee perched on the edge of Azula’s vanity table and began deftly working her way up the covered buttons, “Am I going to have to do everything for you today?”

“You say that as if you don’t love every second of it,” Azula answered and tipped her head back as Ty Lee fastened the last covered button up to the hollow of her neck.

Ty Lee hummed, flicking open one of the vanity drawers for a comb. The comb’s teeth glided through the layers and smoothed down the hacked pieces that she somehow managed to tame into something that looked intentional—like they were supposed to be there. Azula’s eyelids fluttered closed, forgetting all her resolve to not be enjoying herself as Ty Lee wound strands of her hair around one of her fingers, coaxing the curled ends to lay obediently and frame Azula’s face.

“Nails,” Ty Lee said simply. She held out her hands for Azula to rest her palms in for an inspection. Her lips pursed in disapproval, “You’ve been biting them again.”

Azula shrugged, “It helps me think.”

“And what sorts of thoughts are you worrying your pretty little head with while you’re worrying your nails to the quick,” Ty Lee asked, already digging for her file to start buffing the jagged edges away.

“It varies, but this time it was whether I could travel the countryside in disguise with my beloved pet bear, and enjoy a simple life in uncomplicated obscurity.”

Ty Lee’s nose wrinkled, “Like King Kuei?” Azula nodded, “I’m not sure that sort of life would suit you.”

“No?”

“No. For one thing you don’t have a pet bear.

Besides, you don’t have the looks for it. You could never fade into obscurity,” she added, reaching up to tuck a rebellious piece of hair back behind Azula’s ear.

“Both true I suppose,” she said, playing up the smugness in her tone, though her smile was a genuine one. “We could probably fix the bear one. What good is having a brother who’s the Firelord if you can’t have your own pet bear?”

Ty Lee snorted and set the nail file aside, “Well, if you do ask him for one, please wait until I’m around to do it.” She tucked another stray hair back into its place, “I can’t even begin to imagine his face when he thinks about having a bear in the palace.”

Azula shrugged, “He’s already got the Kyoshi warriors, the so-called ambassadors from the Water Tribe, his barefoot advisor, and the Avatar visiting on a regular basis—not to mention the princess turned political prisoner in her own home. I honestly think a bear would be the least of Zuzu’s worries.”

“You’re not a political prisoner, Zula.”

“Yes well, don’t tell the Earth Kingdom generals that or it might change.”

Ty Lee rolled her eyes. “There goes my conversational agenda for the next time I have tea with them.”

“My sincerest apologies.”

As she paused in closing one of the drawers on Azula’s vanity, Azula could just make out a sad and wistful sort of smile on Ty Lee’s lips in the mirror. “What is it?” She prompted.

“Nothing really,” Ty Lee answered, “I just wish all your apologies could be that easy.”

Shaking her head, Azula picked at one of her nails absently until a pointed look from Ty Lee made her drop her hand back to her lap again. “You might as well be asking for me to be different person entirely with a wish like that.”

Ty Lee slipped her arms around Azula’s shoulders, her chin resting on the crook of the princess’s neck. “I’d never wish for that.”

“Not even when I had you thrown in prison?”

“Maybe a little, but you weren’t really yourself back then so I don’t think it counts.” She signed, her warm breath tickling Azula’s ear, “Besides, I’d never have bonding with girls if I hadn’t been there.”

Azula slipped out of Ty Lee’s hold, she stood, ignored the silk slippers that had been set out for her, and padded across the cold tiles to the window. “About that, if you were so opposed to being part of a matching set that you ran away to join the circus, why would you join them? It seems so counterproductive to me to put on a costume and pretend to be someone else when all you wanted was to be yourself.”

“It’s not a costume. It’s a uniform, Zula.” Her tone was soft and firm at once, as unyielding as the golden fan poking out of her pocket. “Being one of them doesn’t stop me from being myself, if anything it means I don’t have to work so hard at it.”

“How?” Azula asked, surprising both of them that she was indulging this debate any further.

Ty Lee hummed and perched on the vanity again, stretching across the table top so her head and braid draped off the edge—thinking.

Azula was convinced Ty Lee had always done her best thinking upside down when all the blood ran to her head. She left her to it and retreated back to her abandoned book. A rare, but comfortable sort of quiet settled between them. The sort of quiet that had come after long hours spent doing cartwheels in the courtyards until their palms were stained with grass and their eyes were heavy under the warm blanket of the afternoon sun.

When they’d done so much turning the world seemed upside down, and all they could do was lie there until things turned the right way around again.

“I don’t think I know how explain it,” she said, after far too long had passed to simply pick up the conversation again as if there hadn’t been an extended pause. “But I might be able to show you, if you think you could endure another wardrobe change.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Necessary? No. But I’d really like it if you let me have my way anyway.” If her words weren’t enough of a trap, her wide eyes were and Azula found herself back in front of the vanity. Ty Lee dug through the bottles and powders in one of the drawers, emerging with a plain looking tin of a thick, white looking paste. She dipped a brush into the mixture. “Close your eyes,” she directed as the first layers of the cool paste spread across Azula’s cheek bones.

They’d done this before, of course. Though under far different circumstances. Playing what amounted to nothing more than a strange game of dress-up in her bedroom, however, didn’t feel all that different than their masquerade to infiltrate Ba Sing Se. It still felt foreign, and like something they weren’t supposed to be doing. Ty Lee cupped Azula’s chin, angling her to one side to apply another swipe of the powder.

“Remind me again what the purpose of this exercise is?” She asked.

Ty Lee shushed her, scowling in concentration as she held the brush away from Azula’s eyes. “No talking, you’ll smudge it.” Her answer came when Azula was still and the brush strokes began again around the corners of her eyes. “The point is that I think that it might be good for you to be part of a matching set for a while. You might learn more than you’d think about who it is you want to be.”

Regardless of how logical or otherwise she found that statement, Azula didn’t argue. It would only have gotten her scolded again and made entire process take longer than it needed to. She stayed pliant and quiet through the rest of the transformation, watching her features soften beneath the layers of powder and paste. Not disappearing entirely, it hadn’t altered who she was in anyway. But it did make her feel different.

She was aware, at least to a certain extent, that each component of what the Kyoshi Warriors wore—costume, uniform, or otherwise held some sort symbolic meaning or purpose. The red and white makeup she’d been painted with was designed to intimidate. Not that it served much purpose in her case, she’d never needed help to look intimidating. The gold ring on the green tie that Ty Lee worked into her hair at the crown of her head was meant to represent honor.

If only Zuko had realized regaining his honor was as simple as a hair accessory. He could have saved himself a world of trouble. Not to mention their world might look entirely different. She smirked, smudging the deep red Ty Lee was applying to her lips. Ty Lee sighed, she swiped her thumb over the smudge.

“So, you’ve painted me red and white and wrapped me in green. Now what?” Azula asked. The flippant question had barely passed her painted lips before Ty Lee had gotten her shoes on her feet and started dragging her out of the suite. “You seem to forget that they’re not going to just let me go waltzing out that door.”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Ty Lee asked confidently, “You have one of the Firelord’s personal bodyguard’s escorting you and you’re about to have more.”

And as if the guards had heard her, they had no response at all to them leaving. No one seemed to take notice of them. If anyone recognized her or had concerns about her having left the sanctuary of her suite, it all went unsaid. Even when they strode out into the training area where the a group of the warriors were preparing for an exercise, no one raised an eyebrow—Or if they did, it couldn’t be seen beneath the thick layers of makeup.

Azula glanced longingly toward the sidelines, but Ty Lee shook her head, “Now that would be completely against the purpose of this exercise, Zula.” Azula’s own words were used as a weapon against her as Ty Lee and Suki cinched her into a borrowed set of armor pads, a familiar and comfortable weight, that layered over the green silk robe. Someone else pressed a fan into her hands. The first weapon she’d held since everything had happened. It wasn’t even sharpened, but the weight of it didn’t feel less real in here hands. A spot in formation had been left open for her, but she hesitated it take it.

“You’re still missing what makes it a uniform,” Ty Lee said and took her hand.

“And that would be what exactly?”

“Being proud to wear it and part of the group,” Azula found herself dragged into the formation.

It took a beat or two for her to fall into step with everyone else, finding the rhythm of the strokes of her fan and matching the rest of the movements. And somewhere in her motions that were a fraction out of synch with the others, she lost where it mattered. For a moment, she wasn’t a prodigy or a princess or even the palace’s unofficial political prisoner. She was just-

“Azula?” Zuko asked, “What are you doing?” Azula felt him scanning her appearance, taking in her makeshift-uniform.

She stepped out of the formation, grateful for the layers of makeup that covered the flush in her cheeks. “Depends on who you ask. If you ask me, I’m playing dress-up. But according to Ty Lee this is some sort of grand experiment to find myself through the restorative good of being part of a matching set. Does that satisfy your curiosity?” Despite his years of diplomatic training, Zuko couldn’t hide his obvious unease. His eyes kept settling back on her fan before she took pity on him, “It’s blunted, Zuzu, and I’m surrounded by an elite team of warriors.”

She supposed she should be flattered he still considered her to be somewhat of a threat.

A little less strained, he managed to ask, “Does it seem like it’s helping?”

“It might have been before you interrupted.” Her tone was clipped, and her eyes drifted back toward her empty spot in the formation. And though she hadn’t been a part of the group until moments before, it seemed incomplete without her in it. It startled both of them with how much she wanted to go back over. “Honestly, I need more to do than read books and staring out my suite windows. It’s this or a pet bear, make up your mind about which one you’d rather deal with.”

She found Ty Lee in the group, the humored twinkling in their eyes over Zuko’s choked expression making a matching set as she slid back into the formation and let her fan slice through the air again.

Solstice gift art for @bearsandbeansart

A Tyzula collage where Ty Lee is helping Azula put on a Kyoshi Warriors uniform.

Paint you red and white and wrap you in green

And at some point, there will likely be an accompanying fic to go with it. Stay tuned! 💚

Tiny teaser snippet:

“Maybe, it would be good for you to be part of a matching set for a while, Azula. You might learn more than you’d think about who it is you want to be.”

#tyzula #azula #ty lee #avatar the last airbender fanfiction #azula redemption #mild spice #we’re talking South West Ranch level of spice at best but thought I should tag it anyway #kyoshi warriors #not beta read #it might be on AO3 eventually but I’m just putting it here for now

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