Flameheart | Zuko

EIGHT

"Hey! Would you stop pulling that hard?"

Homura's humming stopped abruptly as she raised her gaze to meet Ty Lee's eyes through the mirror at her complaint. The corner of her lips pulled upwards as she offered her a slight smile and gently untangled her fingers from her hair.

"It's not my fault your hair is so messy, Ty Lee. I told you you shouldn't train with your hair down, especially today, when it had so much wind."

Her eyes instantly narrowed. "I told you, I wanted to see how you and Suki do it."

"You chose the wrong day for it."

Her smile widened just slightly as she looked away from her, and Homura turned back to her previous activities. She ran her fingers gently through her friend's hair, untangling any knots before she grabbed the brush and started brushing it carefully so as to not hurt her. Absentmindely, she started humming once more. Gradually, Ty Lee relaxed more and more until she was almost leaning against her.

"Your hair has gotten longer than I remembered," Homura mused as she let the brush to the side and started braiding her hair the way Ty Lee usually preferred. She shrugged.

"Well, it's been a while I haven't done something about it. But now we are here, I could ask a servant to trim it for me."

"I suppose you could," she agreed softly, her eyes never leaving the wavy strands of hair that refused to cooperate and stay neat. "I haven't seen any servants around here."

"Most of them are by Zuko's headquarters, that's probably why."

"Well, I don't think we need any."

Ty Lee raised her gaze to meet Homura's through the mirror as she took a step back, letting her hair bounce back to place. With a smile at her she stood up and turned to face her properly. "Maybe we don't need them but having them wouldn't be much of an issue either."

"I suppose-"

The door slammed open. Ty Lee and Homura whirled around, lowering into a fighting stance at once, only to get back to their original position as they noticed Sokka and Suki standing by the door, both of them smiling at them extremely wide. Ty Lee and Homura exchanged a look before the latter spoke up.

"What happened?"

Sokka instantly replied. "I was with Zuko just a few minutes ago and guess what?"

Homura raised an eyebrow, her arms folding in front of her chest. "What, Sokka?"

"Come on, you've got to guess!"

"Oh, I know!" Ty Lee exclaimed with a grin. "Zuko's getting married!"

Homura whipped around to face her, her eyes having grown twice in size as she gaped at her. Suki and Sokka watched her in equal surprise and bewilderment and it was a while later Ty Lee noticed the way they were looking at her. She pouted.

"What? I haven't been to a wedding in ages and a marriage is a happy event! Not to mention that Zuko could use some distraction, he's in his study all day long."

Suki slowly shook her head. "Ty Lee, I don't think-"

"He doesn't even have a girlfriend, he certainly isn't going to have a wife any time soon!" Sokka cut in as he started towards her with his index finger raised. "And he's doing important things in his study and he doesn't need a distraction like that - if he ever has a wife she's not going to be just a distraction to him - and if he needs to be distracted, he has me! I'm funny and sarcastic and I can be a great distraction!"

Homura blinked as she slowly turned her gaze on Suki, but she could do nothing but shrug with a sheepish smile at her.

A momentary pause followed Sokka's outburst as Ty Lee slowly raised a hand and grabbed Sokka's that was pointing at her and lowered it to his side. Other than her slightly raised eyebrow, she appeared rather unimpressed.