Important Things

[shadowsong26]

Title: Important Things (Tentative)
Rating: PG-13 (I think)
Genre: Action/Adventure
Summary: When given time, people think too much. When thinking gives way to action, the consequences may be explosive.
Warning: Takes place after Boiling Rock. And this was intended to be a one-shot. It changed its mind halfway though. I'm playing this entirely by ear (hence the only tentative title and rating).

Ty Lee cries at night.

Mai didn’t find out for a long time--they were locked up separately, too far away for her to hear the younger girl.

At first, she just kept to her own cell and pretended not to care. They only let her out once a day, anyway, to tend to nature’s needs, and she was never brought anywhere near Ty Lee’s cell, and their brief release times were staggered, to prevent even a glimpse.

She convinced herself she didn’t care, even when they stripped her to make sure she didn’t take any weapons with her, and pretended she didn’t regret dragging Ty Lee down. She never meant to bring Ty Lee down.

Mai didn’t regret what she’d done--even if she couldn’t forgive Zuko for abandoning her, she knew he thought he was doing the right thing. Hell, maybe he was right. And she couldn’t just stand there and watch him die.

She knew he wasn’t going to come back for her. She didn’t want him to. Because if he came back, it would cheapen her sacrifice, and make it all for nothing. And he owed her better than that. Dammit, he owed her.

After a week, she stopped sulking and started worrying. Ty Lee had gone above and beyond for her, the least she could to was find out how she was doing. Make sure she was ok.

When she asked the guards who brought her food and took her on her daily “outings,” they said nothing. Frustrated, she started looking for a way to get a message to the younger girl, at the very least. The problem was, she had no pull with which to blackmail and no prize with which to bribe anyone to carry it.

It shouldn’t’ve surprised her that Ty Lee found a way.

The afternoon of the ninth day of their incarceration, the door to her cell opened three hours after her outing. She looked up, surprised and wary and then just surprised when Ty Lee flew into the cell and threw her arms around her.

“What--how did you…?” she stammered out.

“I let one of the guards sleep with me,” Ty Lee said, matter-of-fact.

“You didn’t have to--”

“It’s ok, I’ve let boys sleep with me for stupider reasons. And I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“I’m fine. You?”

Ty Lee hesitated for a minute. “I’ve been better,” she admitted.

The two girls were silent for a long moment, just relieved to find each other intact. “You didn’t have to do that for me,” Mai said, abruptly.

“’Course I did,” Ty Lee insisted. “Sh-she was going to…I couldn’t let her hurt you.”

“If you hadn’t done that, at least one of us would’ve come out of this ok.”

“That’s not good enough.”

There’s a fierceness in Ty Lee that most people don’t see or recognize. Most people see the playful, pretty sprite, and think she’s just what she is on the surface: a little dim-witted, but her heart’s in the right place.

Mai knew better.

So did Azula.

Ty Lee was smarter than people gave her credit for.

And Ty Lee was fierce, when you pushed her far enough.

Apparently, Azula hadn’t just counted Mai wrong that day, and pushed Ty Lee just a little too far.

Mai nodded. “So what do we do now?”

“I guess we wait. Akio says he’ll get me in to see you at least once a day, if I keep sleeping with him. He even said he’d try to get us put closer together.”

“That’d be nice,” Mai agreed.

“And from there…”

“We take it one step at a time.”

The guard who’d brought Ty Lee--probably Akio--tapped on the door and told her it was time to go. After another quick hug, the acrobat slipped out, leaving Mai alone with her thoughts.

Ty Lee had gotten them this far. It was up to Mai to plot the next step.