Ty Lee will block your chi for real (ty_lee) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-07-22 23:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, azula, jubilation lee (jubilee), ty lee |
I'm trusting you to find her.
Who: Azula, Jubilee, Ty Lee
What: Ty Lee heard the news about Mai, and is handling it badly. There's Tequila.
When: Saturday Night/Sunday Morning
Where: The Hotel Bar, then Ty Lee and Azula's suite, London.
Ratings/Warnings: PG-13, drinking, vomiting, yelling.
Status: Complete
Azula knocked on the door to Jubilee's room in the Olympic Village. Then she knocked again. This time Jubilee opened the door, looking disheveled and tired, "What do you want?"
"Ty Lee never came back last night. She smashed her phone. I assume I should blame my idiot brother."
Jubilee groaned, "Let me get dressed."
After Jubilee dressed, the two made their way back to Azula's hotel.
Down in the bar of Azula's hotel, Ty Lee had quite an audience. Men had flocked around her, and some women, too. She was pretty well known by now as 'that openly gay gymnastics chick'. Some of the men were flirting with her and trying to get her to 'change her mind'. Others were just laughing at her drunken jokes.
And there were lots of drunken jokes, because Ty Lee had already heavily imbibed by the time Azula went to get Jubilee. There were several empty shot glasses along the bar.
After squeezing another lime into her mouth and motioning for another shot glass, Ty Lee put a finger up in the air, "I has practices tomorrow and I don't CARES!"
Jubilee heard Ty Lee as they passed the bar, and skidded to a stop. She turned and stared, "Oh. Em. Gee."
Obviously, Azula had made the right choice to not fly out immediately home. She'd made several phone calls but nothing had born fruit. She'd even called her father.
"Come on." She walked inside.
The drunken gymnast licked her wrist and salted it, then licked it again and knocked the shot glass. She could barely see straight at that point, and definitely had no idea that Jubilee and Azula were on their way over.
She waved that other finger in the air, "I'm a ninja, you knows... I can... I can totally... ninja-fu the beam, even hungovers..."
Jubilee put a hand on Ty Lee's shoulder, "I think you've had had totes enough, yo. The Hotness does not approve." She glanced at Azula, who seemed to be momentarily distraught, then grabbed HER hand and put it on Ty Lee's shoulder; She would have thought with some of the socialite things Azula had done, she'd be used to dealing with a drunk friend.
"M'not going anywheres... tequila is fun. You should has shots with me." Ty Lee held up her empty shot glass and grinned at Jubilee, like the shot glass was her new best friend.
Then she frowned, "Zuko is a big fat jerkface... That guy looks like Zuko... I want to... I want to yell at him, but my phones is all brokeded nows..."
Azula looked at the man Ty Lee was referring to. It was one of the Jamacain runners, and she rubbed a hand over her face. The man obviously looked nothing like Zuko. So she picked Ty Lee up, put more pounds down than was strictly necessary, and started to carry her off.
There were catcalls, and Jubilee paffed threateningly, which shut them up long enough for her to escape with them.
"My brother is a fucking moron." Azula's voice was edged. She was upset, and trying not to show it.
"Zuko... fucking moron..." Ty Lee mumbled in agreement. She reached a hand out helplessly in the direction of the Tequila as she'd been carried away, but to no avail. The shot glasses were too far away now.
When did Azula get so strong? Ty Lee randomly wondered about that, then decided to wonder it aloud, "You... you're carrying meee... so strong, strong Azula, when did you get so strong?"
"I've always been strong," She replied carefully. "I've had to be. Don't you remember that?" Despite her words her tone was difficult to decipher. Worried. Stressed. Drained. Tired. There wasn't even all that much anger. She probably couldn't light a cigarette, right now.
"He like, totes screwed it up," Jubilee agreed.
"We should've been there... I never called her, I never FIXED it... she's abducted and maybe hurt and maybe we'll never see her again and I never FIXED it..." Ty Lee trailed off, and tears started squeezing out of her eyes, "I hate myself..."
Once inside Azula's suite, she laid Ty Lee out on the bed then stripped her down, while Jubilee retrieved a garbage bin from the bathroom, in anticipation of the coming few hours. Jubilee plunked into a chair, unwilling to leave her friend right now, and Azula had no desire to make her leave. She might actually need help - and at least Jubilee had the sense to not say anything about it.
"We're here, and if you had been there you would have been taken too," Azula pointed out.
"Don't hate yourself," Jubilee said, from her chair. "You couldn't have known this would happen!"
"Then at least we'd be together... maybe we could ninja our way out..." Ty Lee groaned and curled up in a ball. That Tequila was already starting to feel less like her best friend and more like a very large mistake.
"She's with Kit Kat, that's like bein' with a small army of ninjas," Jubilee boasted.
"Get some water."
Jubilee got up and went to the fridge, pulling out some bottled water and pretending she hadn't seen the price. She came over, handing it to Azula.
Azula opened the water and helped Ty Lee drink, "I've made some very angry phone calls. It's the best I can do from here."
"Don't want to do this without... without Mai... if she's gone... can't do this..." Came the drunken mumbling of Ty Lee, after Azula got some water into her.
She caught Azula's arm and looked up at her, blurting, "She tried to kill herself once."
"What..?" Azula lowered the bottle, staring at Ty Lee, "When? How? Why did no one tell me?"
"Was... after the zuko thing, the first time, she was all ... I caughted her in her room, you know. I was going to tell her... tell her about Zuko, but I couldn't, not then, and then ..." She frowned, "Is a secret, is why. She didn't want everyone ... you know, worryings about it, but... worried. I'm worried. I'm worried she'll just give up."
Ty Lee didn't want Mai to give up. In a situation like this though? She might do it. She had to say something, so people could keep an eye on her if she was found.
Azula twitched, but said nothing about her brother taking her woman's virtue before her. Okay maybe it still bothered her and she was due for punching him in the balls, but that could come later. Right now there were other things to worry about.
"Mai..won't give up." Azula snarled, "She won't give up and we won't let her. Do you understand?!"
Jubilee put a hand on Azula's arm, "Ease up."
"DON'T YELL AT ME. IT'S NOT MY FAUL SHE HAD A KNIFE TO HER WRIST! I STOPPED HER!" Ty Lee had gone from joking, slurring, telling other people's unfortunate secrets drunk to all out angry drunk, apparently.
Or maybe it was the subject at hand. Azula had probably hit some kind of nerve or other.
There was silence in the room after Ty Lee's outburst. Jubilee just stared at her, then sat on the bed and gave her a hug. Azula didn't know what to say at first, but finally found words, "I wasn't yelling Ty Lee! We won't let her fall that low, this time. That's all I'm saying!"
The silence was broken not only by Azula's words, but also by Ty Lee, who was clinging to Jubilee and sobbing hysterically.
Azula got to her feet, pacing, the air in the room heating noticably. How had she not..SEEN this? Not noticed any scars, not paid attention enough to her friends. Even the way Ty Lee had reacted had completely startled her. She was used to giving an order and having it followed, but that didn't translate well to friendships.
Jubilee just rocked Ty Lee back and forth, making shhhhh sounds.
It was like a faucet that, once started, couldn't be closed again. Ty Lee just kept on sobbing uncontrollably, mumbling things here and there that no one could really understand.
First her brother lost her friend, then he broke her girlfriend. Azula tugged at her hair.
Jubilee motioned for the bukket.
Azula stared at her, then realized what she meant and brought it over.
Jubilee knew what she was doing, because using the bukket was going to be necessary after all the hysterical sobbing that Ty Lee was doing.
She let Azula hold Ty Lee's hair. Like it was some how important it was her and not Jubilee that do that. And maybe it was. Azula swallowed her own bile.
There was a few minutes where Ty Lee just sort of sat there, clinging to her bukket with tears running out of her eyes. Then, when she was sure that she wouldn't need it anymore, she crawled up off the bed and took it with her to the bathroom.
Part of her was starting to understand that tomorrow morning was really, really going to suck. That part of her told her she was stupid.
Azula encircled her own waist with her arms. If nothing else, this was putting her off more than casual drinking. Ever. She got up without a word, and walked to the balcony, opening the door and stepping outside, to try to get some fresh, rain-smelling air. She exhaled smoke.
Jubilee went to check in on Ty Lee. She wondered if they needed to put her in a cold shower to try to sober her up.
Ty Lee was rinsing out the bucket, and considering a shower, herself. She glanced at Jubilee as she entered, "I feel stupid."
"You're hurting and scared, yo. I almost joined you but someone had to kick Azula's ass." She grinned a bit, then pulled Ty Lee over to the shower, "Get in, this part will suck."
"I don't want to..." Ty Lee mumbled, but she let herself get pulled into the shower, anyway. She didn't know what Jubilee had planned, but it was probably going to be cold and unpleasant.
Did cold showers even work in cases like this?
Sometimes. It worked in movies? The water was frigid and Jubilee hopped nimbly out of the way as it cascaded down onto Ty Lee.
The water was so cold that it actually stung. Ty Lee's teeth started to chatter a few seconds later. She certainly FELT more sober.
"There we go. The Hotness would tell ya you'll feel better, but no, no you won't." Jubilee smiled tightly, sitting on the toilet after gathering a towel. She wondered if Azula was still on the balcony cooling off in the rain.
That was pretty much what Azula was doing. The rain also obscured pesky tears.
Ty Lee had curled up in the shower, huddling up a bit for warmth. Eventually she cut the water off and pushed wet hair off of her face, "I've never had more than a glass of wine or two before..."
"This is going to be epic," Jubilee promised.
"I'm going to want to wish I was dead, aren't I?" Ty lee asked, her voice a bit pitiful, and tiny.
"Yep." She patted Ty Lee's wet back. Then stopped her hand, looked at it suspiciously, and wiped it on her pants, "But you needed to get it out."
"... probably not with Tequila, though..." Ty Lee crawled out of the shower and pulled the towel around her. She sat on the edge of the tub, and hugged herself, "If they don't find her, I'm going home."
"No." Azula was standing in the doorway, hair and clothing soaked, "You'll stay. You'll compete. You'll win. Mai would be very upset with you if you went home right now. I'll go." She came in, sitting on the edge of the tub next to Ty Lee and putting her arm around her, and whispered, "Please...for the three of us." She meant her, Mai and Ty Lee.
"I can't do it, Azula," tears started streaming down Ty Lee's cheeks again, and she shook her head. The idea of not being there when they might need her there for ... something or other, she wasn't even sure... was more than she could handle. Gold medals meant nothing at all in the face of that.
Azula worked her throat, "What would Mai say if you threw away years of hopes, dreams and work, only to find out she was perfectly okay?" She had to pick her words carefully. She had to keep her own feelings out of this.
Ty Lee thought about that, "She'd probably verbally kick my butt."
"She'd cut you with her tongue," Azula agreed. "She'd be happy that you were worried, but annoyed that you were worried."
"Well I don't want her to cut me with her tongue, or be annoyed, but..." Ty Lee sighed, "Alright. I'll stay. But someone really does have to go."
"Jubilee can't," Azula said, leaning her face on Ty Lee's shoulder. "It has to be me. Someone has to kick my brother in the ass."
Jubilee took that as her cue to give them some privacy.
"He probably needs you, anyway," Ty Lee snuggled in a bit against Azula, trying to sort through her emotions over this. She needed Azula here with her, but Zuko needed her more, "Even if he'd never admit it. He won't. But he needs you."
Azula worked her throat, then kissed Ty Lee's ear and whispered, "Can you be strong for me? So that I can be strong for Mai?"
She didn't feel strong, but for Azula - because she was actually asking her to be - Ty Lee thought she could manage it. Or at least, she wanted to try. She nodded her head, "Okay. But you better find her, Azula. I'm trusting you to find her."
She wasn't trusting Zuko. Zuko had lost her to begin with.
She nodded her head, pulling Ty Lee's face and kissing her, alcohol breath and all, "I'll bring her right here. So she can watch you win." It was a tender moment, only for Ty Lee. Only ever for her.
"I believe you," Ty Lee whispered. She had to.
"You make me a better person." Azula had started to pull away, when the words tumbled out of her mouth. And why shouldn't they? Azula was a terrible person. She knew this deep down. The dreams only confirmed it. But she thought often of that cell. Of losing everything that had really mattered to her and not knowing how or why. It drove her to the brink of madness sometimes, when she was alone. That missing piece. That feeling she couldn't name. That hurt.
Azula had startled herself. You make me a better person.
It startled Ty Lee, too. She wasn't really sure what to say in answer, but she pulled Azula back closer to her, and hugged onto her. Then, it just sort of fell out of her mouth, much the way Azula's words had fallen out of hers, "You make me strong."
Azula squeezed. She'd probably missed the window for one of the earlier flights back but she didn't mind. Another few hours with Ty Lee, even if Ty Lee might be miserable as the hangover hit her, were welcome.
"You're the strong one. You always have been."
"Oh no," Ty Lee shook her head, "I only followed along this whole time, because of you."
Azula shook her head, but said nothing. She kissed Ty Lee again, then wrapped a towel around her, "Get to bed. You're not going to be happy in the morning."
"I think I'm going to have to break up with my new best friend, Tequila." Ty Lee agreed. She started heading back out to the bedroom, towel wrapped around her, then looked back over her shoulder at Azula, "I love you."
Sagging against the wall, Azula gave her a tired smile, "I love you too."