Sokka did not think he'd ever been beaten up quite so gently before.
It was a little embarrassing to admit that he was getting his ass handed to him by a girl as short, slender and generally pink as Ty Lee was, but Sokka could see the writing on the wall.
His left after was completely unresponsive after she had jabbed it a few times with her fingers, hitting points that stung a little and then sent the surrounding muscles to sleep. And while he was just barely keeping his balance, she was swinging about the place as if she'd been born on a tightrope. The only reason he'd lasted this long was because she was very obviously taking it easy on him.
"Boomerang!" He shouted desperately as she advanced upon him again, throwing his trusty boomerang. He knew that the chances of it hitting someone so damn nimble were low, but he hoped that she, like so many others, would be caught by surprise when the weapon spun around and came back.
As anticipated Ty Lee smoothly hopped from one railing to the next, letting the boomerang whiz past harmlessly, but unlike anyone he'd faced before she actually turned around to watch it with wide, fascinated eyes.
"Wow! It's so pretty!" She complimented cheerfully, and then gave a squeal of delight as it began to turn around mid-air. "And it comes back! That's so cool! With some brighter colours the audience would love these!" She bent backwards like a limbo dancer, letting the boomerang soar over her head as it returned to Sokka, and looked up at him with a bright smile. "Hey, maybe when this is all over you'd like to come back to the circus with me?"
Was she being serious? It was a ridiculous thing to ask, let alone in the middle of a fight, but then again Ty Lee had been incredibly happy-go-lucky this whole time. "Uhh, no thank you?" He replied hesitantly.
Ty Lee pouted cutely. "That's a shame. Guess I'll have to capture you after all."
How exactly she managed to roll from that uncomfortable position into a flat-out sprint while still perched on a thin strip of metal, Sokka could not fathom, but within a second she was on him again.
Sokka lashed out, holding his boomerang like a club in his right hand as he swiped at her in the hopes that using something she couldn't poke with her strange jabby-finger technique would help.
It didn't. Ty Lee swayed around the boomerang with agility that would make an airbender green with envy, and struck out with a jab right between two of his knuckles. The boomerang slipped out of Sokka's hand as his fingers went numb, and his instincts suddenly flared in warning as he realised that the sudden change in weight had thrown him off balance. His feet struggled to find purchase on the smooth metal, and Sokka's stomach clenched in dread as he felt gravity grab hold and begin to pull him down.
"Whoops. Careful there cutie. Wouldn't want you to get hurt."
To his surprise, Sokka felt a small yet surprisingly firm grip on his shoulder, and suddenly his fall halted. A glance over his shoulder confirmed the bizarre truth: Ty Lee had stopped his fall.
Ty Lee gave him another bright smile when they made eye contact, and without a word pulled him back up so that he was nice and balanced yet again. She'd even caught his boomerang in her other hand before it could fall. All thoughts of combat were halted for a moment as Sokka stared at her incredulously, and she simply smiled back at him merrily.
"Okay look, I'm confused. Are you trying to fight me or help me?" Sokka asked. "Because I'm kind of getting mixed messages here."
Ty lee grinned sheepishly. "I mean… can't I do both?"
"I mean you are, so I can't deny that. I'm just confused as to why you would want to." Sokka replied. "Don't you work for Tanya?"
"No. Well, I mean yes, but not really. She's my friend, but I don't really work work for her, so much as I work work for Azula, who Tanya also works for but doesn't work work for, they're more like friends, but also not friends, but Tanya hasn't really realised that yet so I guess they're friends-but-not-friends. So I suppose you could say I'm Tanya's friend who work works for her other friend-but-not-friend and works for Tanya by extension?"
Sokka stared at her.
Ty Lee stared back.
"What?" Sokka asked dumbly.
"It's complicated." Ty Lee replied.
"Yeah, sounds like it." Sokka let out a heavy sigh. "So why exactly are we fighting?"
"Because you're part of the rebels attacking Omashu, and Azula wants me to capture you." Ty Lee answered.
"But we're only attacking because we want to leave Omashu. What's so bad about wanting to be free?" Sokka countered. "And regardless of what Azula, whoever that is, wants, do you want to fight me?"
"Well-... uhh…" Ty Lee suddenly looked very uncertain, and just a little bit afraid. For a few seconds she seemed to flounder around insecurely. "I want what Azula wants."
Sokka didn't know who this Azula was, but he didn't like her. It was pretty obvious that this girl really didn't want to be here. Despite being from the Fire Nation she didn't seem to have a mean bone in her body, and yet here she was fighting to put down a revolution because of what someone else wanted. "But you don't want to fight, do you?" He asked.
"I do too!" Ty Lee replied quickly, defensively even. The girl couldn't fib to save her life. "Tanya's always telling me how lucky I am to have learnt such a useful fighting style!"
Sokka grimaced. "Yeah, but she's-"
"- Tanya." They both finished in unison. Ty Lee giggled bashfully and looked away, while Sokka felt a sudden surge or heat flood his cheeks and had the sudden impulse to look up. Ty Lee was kinda cute now that she wasn't trying to poke him, and she had a dazzling smile. If he was being honest with himself, Sokka didn't really want to fight her either. It was too bad that he had to.
Or did he?
"Okay, listen, how about we try solving this diplomatically?" Sokka suggested.
Immediately Ty Lee perked up. "Can we do that?"
"Sure we can!" Sokka assured her. "I mean look around! Everyone below us is too busy fighting each other to look up. I don't want to fight you, and you don't want to fight me, so why don't we just, you know, tell everyone we had a fight, and actually resolve this peacefully?"
Ty Lee thought about it for a moment, but it was obvious even then that she really wanted to say yes. Her shoulders seemed to relax in relief from an unseen burden placed upon them. "Yeah! Good idea! Let's do that!" Then her face scrunched up in dismay. "But wait, what about the rebellion?"
Sokka looked down at the chaos below. Earth and fire benders were slaughtering each other, and now that he stopped to really think about it this fight was kind of pointless. The earth rebels wanted to escape the city, and the fire soldiers would probably have an easier time occupying the city if they did just go away. The only person he could think of who actually wanted to stop them was Tanya, and that was just because she wanted to capture Aang.
"What if you let us escape?"
The words slipped out before he consciously realised he was saying them, and Sokka quickly backpedalled as Ty Lee visibility bristled at the idea of being a traitor. "Not that I'm suggesting you actually betray the Fire Nation of course! I'm just thinking we want to leave, and your side probably doesn't want rebels hanging around in your nice new city, so wouldn't everyone be happier if the rebels managed to get out of here?"
"I suppose so…" Ty Lee replied hesitantly. She wasn't fully convinced, but Sokka could tell that her resolve was wavering. It wouldn't take much more to convince her.
"Not to mention that a whole lot less people would be hurt if you let us go easily." He ventured. "And there's even a way we could stage it to make sure that nobody suspects you lost deliberately.
All you have to do is warn the Fire Nation soldier below us that this chandelier is about to fall on them, and they'll retreat. Then I drop the chandelier for real, the rebels push forwards into the crystal caverns and escape, and everyone gets what they want." Except Tanya, but mentioning that didn't strike him as a particularly good idea right now.
Ty Lee considered it for a moment longer, but it was clear that she was coming around to the idea. "Yeah, that could work. And Tanya does always say that it's inefficient to let human resources go to waste. She'd want me to prioritise saving our soldiers over capturing you." She flashed him another one of her sunny smiles. "Okay, let's do it!"
Wow. This was actually working. As someone who'd always wanted to be a warrior, Sokka would admit he'd always been a little bit dismissive of diplomacy before. But if it always worked out this smoothly he'd definitely be trying it again. Aang would be so proud. "Great! I'll go and-..."
A column of flame from the melee below sent a flash of orange light that reflected off the chandelier, and for a second the world around them glittered and sparkling with light, illuminating Ty Lee in a golden glow. With every shadow across her face chased away and her dazzling smile lit up, Sokka was struck by the revelation of how beautiful she looked…
His heart skipped a beat.
Oh no! Oh no, no, no! That wasn't-... But he didn't-... She was the enemy! He didn't feel that way about her, did he?! Surely he couldn't after everything that had happened with Yue?
Suddenly very conscious of the fact that he'd been staring at her wordlessly for a few seconds, Sokka looked away. "Well-... Umm, then I'll go and-... you know, the chandelier?"
"Oh! Oh right!" Ty Lee replied hastily, looking awkwardly away to the side as well. "I'll go and shout down to everyone below."
"Yeah! Good idea!" Sokka turned and fled as quickly as he could without seeming suspicious from the suddenly awkward atmosphere, heading towards the chains keeping the chandelier suspended. Oh spirits, she was going to think that he was a complete weirdo now wasn't she? Idiot!
"LOOK OUT! IT'S GONNA FALL!" Ty Lee shouted down to the soldiers below.
...
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