I was practically buried beneath an avalanche of chatter and boundless enthusiasm. In the end, I had no choice but to gently take Ty Lee's head in my hands and turn it slightly.
"Oh! Hi, Suki! Girls! And who's this adorable little sweetheart?"
"I'm not adorable. And I'm not little," Toph snapped instantly.
"So... you all know each other?" Azula finally found her voice, visibly astonished by what she was seeing.
A moment later, however, she slipped into her favorite venomous persona(bitchy mode).
"I'd heard sailors have a wife in every port, but I never imagined you, Chan, belonged to that category. And you, Ty Lee... I certainly wasn't expecting this from you."
Judging by the way she pressed her lips into a thin line, she was feeling at least a little jealous—and more than a little irritated.
"Me? We? What?!"
Ty Lee whipped her head back and forth in disbelief, desperately searching our faces for some sign that this was all a joke. To her horror, she found none, and immediately dissolved into full-blown panic.
"No, no, you've got it all wrong! We only met not that long ago, when Chan happened to pass through here on some business! I was just performing, and afterward he gave me flowers, and then we simply sat by the campfire talking until evening, and..."
She abruptly realized what she was saying.
"A-ah! By the way, how did everything turn out? Did you manage to do what you wanted to do?" The look she shot me practically screamed: Help! Panic! I'm dying here!
"Flowers?" Azula repeated, instantly picking out the one detail that mattered.
"Nicely done!" Toph said with a shamelessly satisfied grin, giving me an approving punch on the arm.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee..." the Kyoshi Warriors' giggles drifted over from somewhere in the background.
Meanwhile, Suki calmly pretended she wasn't there at all. The clouds were just soooo fascinating today...
"Yes, that's more or less how it happened," I nodded, doing my best impression of a talking stool. "Although you spent considerably more time trying to recruit Suki and the girls into becoming acrobats than you did talking to me. Still... it really is an awfully small world."
"Is that so?" the heir to the throne replied, her voice dripping with venom as she studied our little group with distinctly unhealthy interest.
The moment Ty Lee heard that tone—and saw that narrowing of Azula's eyes—she began nodding frantically, staring at her friend with all the desperate pleading of a thoroughly cowed puppy.
"Well," I said with a shrug, "sailors are a fanciful bunch, and they do love spinning tall tales, so I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you, Princess. There's nothing of the sort between us." I paused thoughtfully, letting my gaze travel slowly over the acrobat's figure. "Although... now that I think about it..."
Receiving such an outrageous betrayal from my side, Ty Lee flushed scarlet and glanced at Azula in sheer horror, like a rabbit staring into the eyes of a snake.
At the same moment, Toph doubled over with helpless laughter, Suki and several of the Kyoshi Warriors synchronized a perfect facepalm, while the rest only intensified their giggling.
"All right, all right," the princess said with a regal wave of her hand. The mood—and Ty Lee's reaction in particular—had clearly put her in a much better one. "I was only teasing. Still... why didn't you ever write to tell me you'd met the Fire Herald?"
"The who?" The acrobat's face, which had only just lit up at the news of her "pardon," became the very picture of bewilderment.
"Wait... she doesn't know?" the Fire Lord's daughter turned to stare at me in utter disbelief.
"Apparently not..." I was just as surprised. It was one thing that Ty Lee paid no attention to politics—that much was obvious. But the fact that Suki had never hinted at who I really was... now that was unexpected. Not that I doubted women could keep secrets. They certainly could—as long as they did it collectively.
"What? What are you talking about?" Now it was Ty Lee's turn to look back and forth between Azula and me in complete confusion.
"Well, long story short," I said, "I'm apparently the Fire Herald. Evil, cruel monster and all that."
"Huh? Wow! Really? That's amazing! What a surprise!"
The little bundle of energy practically started bouncing around me.
Fortunately, she recovered from the revelation quickly enough and immediately moved on to hugging Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors instead, while Azula pressed her lips together once again.
No...
She was definitely jealous of Ty Lee.
Well.
I hadn't expected that.
"Right..." Once the initial excitement subsided, we were finally able to resume the conversation. "So what exactly is this aura you're talking about?" Maybe I'd misunderstood something after all.
"Aura!" Ty Lee declared with such enthusiasm that it sounded as though she'd capitalized the word. "Your spiritual essence! It affects your overall state and your mood! And mine is pink!"
"Uh... I see."
Why on earth had I asked?
Now she'd answered, and I had to live with that knowledge.
"Hmm. All right." The skepticism in Azula's voice perfectly mirrored my own. "So you're refusing?" she asked her friend.
"I'm sorry, Azula, I..." The acrobat once again put on an adorably guilty expression, clasping her hands in front of herself.
"It's all right. I understand," the heir to the throne said, lowering her eyelids with regal condescension. "And I wouldn't want you to give up such a wonderful life just for my sake." My inner Admiral Ackbar immediately started screaming, It's a trap!
"Thank you, Azula!"
And the joy on Ty Lee's face… She definitely hadn't noticed a thing.
"I do hope we'll have the chance to enjoy one of your performances before we leave," the princess remarked offhandedly as she turned away and started walking off.
This time, even Ty Lee sensed that something was coming. The way she flinched was impossible to miss.
"O-of course!" she replied, though her smile had become decidedly strained.
"Don't worry," I said with an encouraging smile before turning to follow Azula. "It'll be fine. We won't keep you any longer."
Leaving the beauty to continue her warm-up, we walked away.
(End of Chapter)
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