Work Text:
Zuko's boat is just another shadow in the harbor, another black blot of a silhouette against the indigo night sky. There would be nothing special about it, if she didn't know it was Zuko's ship. As is, Ty Lee can't look away.
She shivers under her borrowed shawl, knowing she should get back to the caravan if she doesn't want to freeze tonight, but she can't quite make herself leave, not when she knows he's so close. She could sneak onto that boat and see him, if she wanted to. That's how close he is.
Well, a voice says in Ty Lee's mind. You could.
She could definitely make it on the boat, at least. Though she doubts she'd make it far after that without getting caught. Capable of scrambling up ropes and the sides of ships she may be, but that doesn't mean Ty Lee is good at stealth. She is a performer . Stealth is the exact opposite of her specialty.
… And what would happen if she did get caught?
There are a couple of answers to that question. She might get thrown in his ship's brig, which would be bad. But she also might not. Ty Lee isn't their enemy, after all. She's an old friend of Zuko's, and a fire nation citizen. Maybe they would just… let her say hi?
She kicks her legs back and forth where they dangle over the edge of the dock. It's a good daydream. She imagines Zuko's smile lighting up at seeing someone from home . Someone there to be a friend.
The thought is warm, but it still makes her smile falter. She wonders how lonely he is, on that ship. It makes her insides feel all small and dark, like being trapped inside a too-small cave.
Ty Lee is lonely enough herself sometimes, since joining the circus, and she has friends there. And she hadn't been… sent away like Zuko had been. Without even wanting to go. Like no one wanted her around anymore.
It doesn't feel good, thinking about Zuko feeling that way.
Taking in one last breath of the cold night air, she stands up, tightening her shawl around her shoulders. She's been here long enough. Sticking around longer is only going to grey out her aura.
As nice as the thought of visiting Zuko is, she knows it isn't really an option. Even if there's no rule she's breaking, someone would find out about it, and it would get back to someone , and…
There would be consequences.
Ty Lee doesn't even know what those would be, but she can't risk it. She still doesn't know if Azula hadn't hunted her down and forced her back to Caldera after she ran away because she hadn't known where to look, or if she just hadn't bothered. If she heard about Ty Lee seeing Zuko… Well.
Azula had never liked it when her brother played with her toys, even ones she'd already discarded.
Ty Lee's eyes linger on the ropes tying the ships to the docks—like little tightropes. It would be so easy…
…And she sees a figure.
They dart down the ropes as gracefully as an acrobat, as gracefully as Ty Lee, and her jaw drops.
***
She watches the figure scuttle into the city with a grin.
Maybe, just maybe, she won't have to sneak onto the ship in order to see her old friend after all.
***
Ty Lee waits by the moorings for Zuko to return, not wanting to play the near-unwinnable game of stalking him of all people through the shadows. She somehow almost misses him anyway, though she has no idea how—there isn't much in the way of cover this far out on the docks. Key word being almost.
"Zuko!"
She holds out her arms to either side, in a gesture that could be broadly interpreted as either here I am, come hug me, or perhaps ta-da!
He makes a choking noise that is audible even under the blue theater mask he's wearing, and almost slips off the side of the pier before catching himself.
Ty Lee knits her fingers together and raises her arms above her head, in a casual stretch, twisting her hands and forearms inside out so her palms face outward as she stretches. Loose, nonthreatening, hands visible and occupied.
The tips of Zuko's dual dao dip downward, no longer held ready to attack her. Ty Lee smiles.
"Don't worry," she says, raising a finger to her lips. "I can keep a secret."
His shoulders fall the rest of the way. "...Ty Lee?"
She smiles at him, fluttering her fingers in a small wave. "Yup! It's been awhile, hasn't it?"
"What are you doing here?"
She beams at him again, deliberately oblivious to the rudeness, and pops up onto just her toes. He sounds more baffled-Zuko than Irritated Zuko anyway. "I'm in town with the circus. Are you staying at port long? You should come see a show!"
"I… uh…"
He doesn't seem to know how to react.
Ty Lee takes a chance and steps in to give him the hug she'd been considering before, squeezing tight enough to be extra comforting and tucking her head under his chin. Zuko is tall now—she couldn't have done that before, but now it isn't even difficult.
He's frozen, at first, almost like he's afraid to move, but when seconds pass and she doesn't do anything except nuzzle further into his neck, he slowly lifts up an arm to wrap around her, light and hesitant against her back. Ty Lee feels warmth course through her at the touch, like the feeling of spiced hot chocolate on a cold day.
His arms are bigger too; longer, and heavier. Zuko has never been that great at hugging—most of the satisfaction she'd gotten from it when she'd surprise-hugged him in the past had come from hearing him squeak and seeing just how red and flustered he got afterwards. He was kind, and never minded, but also awkward, all elbows and bony limbs. She'd mostly done it because she thought he needed it.
Sixteen-year-old Zuko's hug is still awkward, but it feels good in a way she hadn't expected, heavier arms and broader shoulders swallowing her up in something both safe and heady.
"Will you take the mask off?" she whispers, lashes of her still-closed eyes brushing his neck. Her voice cracks. "I haven't seen you in a really long time."
His head pulls away from her, and she opens her eyes to see him scanning the dock, obviously ill at ease.
"Um... Yeah. Just not here."
They sneak into the nearest boathouse. Zuko lights up one hand to illuminate the cramped room, and they both sit down crosslegged on the ground, facing each other. Ty Lee leans forward, grasping her toes.
Zuko fumbles with the string on his mask, a slow dread evident in the drawn out, overly careful way he reaches to remove it.
Ty Lee had heard rumors about a scar, after he disappeared. She hadn't thought much of them at the time, but the way he hesitates makes the knowledge sink in her chest, like a pebble dropped down a murky well. A facial scar.
Of course he'd be sensitive, about something like that. And here she is, having forced him into a situation where he has absolutely nothing to focus on other than his face and her judgement. Her throat feels suddenly raw.
Ty Lee is determined, after that, not to react at all. People make a big deal about scars, but it's not any more significant a change than the fact he's three years older than the last time she saw him. He's still going to look like himself .
And then he pulls the mask away, and Ty Lee freezes despite herself, because he doesn't .
It's not even the scar.
Well, it's partially the scar.
The scar is hard to ignore (Ty Lee tries not to think about how much it must have hurt to get, what had happened to his skin to turn it so shiny and… and ridged, like it had melted and bubbled at the heat.) But the real difference is in how harsh he looks, with his head almost completely shaved and his face grown into its sharper features.
It's not even that he looks bad—not even the brutality of the hairstyle choice can overshadow the inherent prettiness of Zuko's bone structure. If she had to call him anything, it would be striking —but it's unsettlingly different from the sweet, plain face she remembers. There is no sweetness.
His shoulders hunker over. "I know. The scar is..."
"I was more surprised by the hair, actually," she says, figuring that honesty, in this case, will probably help. "It's very dramatic. It suits you."
That, at least, is true. Younger Zuko had always been too unassuming.
He flinches, averting his eyes from hers. "You don't have to lie to be nice."
She shrugs. "I already knew you had a scar. The hair was unexpected."
It doesn't relax the tension still trapped in his body, not the way Ty Lee wants. The silence lingers.
"...How did you even know it was me?" Zuko mumbles.
"The acrobatics, mostly," Ty Lee answers, letting a cheshire grin steal across her face. "I'd recognize my student's moves anywhere. That, and I saw you crawl out the window of your ship."
He sighs, and his voice sounds equal parts resigned and wryly amused. "...Of course you did."
It's the happiest she's heard him since ambushing him on that dock, and Ty Lee would count it a win, except his aura's still that beat-up color, all bruised grays and faded ink stains. She tilts her head to the side. "You've stayed in practice.
His shoulders hunch up even more. "It's useful."
Ty Lee bites her lip, twirling the bottom of her braid around her finger. "You know… we could probably still pull off some of our old routines if we had the equipment."
It's just a passing idea. But as soon as she's said it, she wants it, a surprising nostalgia filling her like fungus spreading through all the crevasses of a cracked rock.
"C'mon." She rolls her legs under her so she's on her knees, then gracefully snaps into an upright position.
Zuko startles "What?"
"Put that thing back on." she says, nodding to his discarded mask where it lies on the floor, overturned, next to his thigh. "I'm going to introduce my friend Masky to the circus."
"You—what?" He scrambles after her. "You are not calling me Masky!"
The corners of her mouth twitch upward. He isn't even protesting the idea of going back into the city.
Maybe that's because she's successfully distracted him, or maybe it's because he wants this little bit of home as much as she does. As long as he comes with her, Ty Lee isn't sure she cares.