BOUND BY HATE
No, I will not follow, follow after you
Your story is all lies and your heart it isn't true
I'll not leave my husband, his castle or estate to follow the roving gypsy
"The Gypsy" — The Irish Rovers
It would be reckless to love her.
Mai is not reckless or bold. She has remained quiet and well-behaved for all of her life but one moment at the Boiling Rock, and she paid for that brashness. For two years, she has been silent and obedient while playing house with someone she despises. At least, she was until the past few weeks when she met someone who made her... who unbound her.
She wanted to sneak out and meet June, but she felt paralyzed by seventeen years of training. Maybe it was June's disregard for rules and loud mouth and flagrant wildness that made Mai like her more than anyone else she ever looked at.
No one ever seemed worth the potential consequences.
Mai made her decision and left her room. She walked towards the doors to the outer palace and ran into her captor.
"It's almost sunset and I have no idea where you would want to be going," said Ozai and Mai wondered if she should just give up. Love was never worth it.
She wanted to. She wanted to do it and she was going to do it.
"I need to go for a walk on my own," she said. "I need to think about things, and I can't be behind bars forever without going insane."
"You would have been at the Boiling Rock," Ozai replied, frustratingly stating the truth.
"I know, and I am very grateful to you for letting me out. I have never caused you any trouble and I think I deserve a few privileges," Mai confidently replied. He was startled by her strong tone.
She was bitter; he was aware of that. She probably needed to clear her head and be away from those four walls that kept her in place. There were three more walls that would prevent her from going very far, and so he nodded.
"Don't be more than two hours."
"I won't be," Mai replied.
Mai kissed June passionately.
She then pulled away and sat back on June's bed. Her apartment was not exactly pretty or anywhere near as nice as where Mai has lived her whole life. All the same, she liked the company better than what she had in those past homes.
"I'm sorry," Mai whispered.
"Why?" June asked.
"I should leave to be with you, but I can't," Mai said. June shrugged.
"It doesn't matter to me," replied June, and Mai did not know whether or not to believe her.
Mai continued pulling away and June grabbed her by the arm. It was vicious and Mai somehow liked it. She hated being handled fiercely but this felt surprisingly good. She leaned forward and kissed June, soft at first, but quickly much deeper.
The Queen moved to straddle June and she breathed in so slowly. She could hear her own breath more than June's. Mai had a few drinks; June had tons but was somehow coherent. This would not be quite as messy as their past times and Mai had no idea what to think.
She hated having opinions.
Heat like fire flared between them as Mai pressed closer against her and June ran her hands up Mai's thighs and into her lovely clothes. Mai lifted her arms and allowed June to undress her. She did that for herself with the only person she was supposed to be sleeping with, because she was not a fan of the roughness that happened the other way.
June was not rough; she was bold and fast and that felt similar but worlds better.
Mai wished she was wearing something sexier beneath her clothes. June did not give a fuck; she wanted to tear all of it off and see her girl naked. June held her close and released to reach to the hem of Mai's panties and pushed them down over her hips.
June tore her own clothes off before Mai could even start.
The Queen relished the feel of the hot wetness against her thighs. June's hands were everywhere all at once. Her smooth back, her breasts, her waist. It was everywhere but where Mai wanted them to be the most. Then again, the grinding was hot enough for Mai to not take charge.
June tossed Mai down recklessly with no regard for pain or mistakes or anything and that was something Mai had experienced and hated but right now she loved it and she had never been so confused.
Mai reached up and combed her fingers through June's thick, dark hair and tangled her fingers into the tresses near the base of her neck. She would not let her go.
She held June in place, feeling odd to be in control, and lowered her down into a deeper kiss. The recruited Fire Nation mercenary slid her hands between the Phoenix King's wife's legs, which was the stupidest and most reckless move any idiot could ever make.
But that wasn't going to stop her from doing whatever she wanted.
Mai eagerly opened, moaning into June's mouth as her fingers found slick heat. June began to pull away and Mai pulled her back. It made her heart jump. They breathed heavily as June's fingers strayed and returned and strayed again.
"You're so wet," June whispered, close to laughing. Mai almost did too. It did not seem to fit in with sex to Mai but neither seemed to care either.
June caught her clit between her thumb and index finger, pressing lightly but firmly. Mai muffled her scream against her shoulder. Waking the neighbors could lead to being caught in a compromising-because-someone-will-get-executed position.
Mai never felt more alive as the room vanished, as did her inhibitions, and all that existed were June's fingers, gliding and pressing.
"What do you want?" June whispered. Mai was tugging on her hair.
"Don't act like you don't know," Mai whispered back.
It took moments to be screaming in the only feeling the drew her back to June again and again. They were different and they pretended not to love each other, but they couldn't pretend to not love this.
June crushed her lips against Mai's and Mai tore her mouth away.
They were not done, even though Mai remembered herself for a painful moment.
"You're crazy. Why do you do this? You're crazy," Mai said while she got dressed. "Someone is going to see me one day and you're going to die and you're crazy. Why?"
June laughed.
"Because I know what I want and I take it," she replied. "Fuck the rules. They're made to be broken, unlike what you think."
Mai was not impressed by that comment. It struck an odd nerve.
"You sound like him. Don't sound like him," she said. June lied down on her bed.
"You should leave. I could get you out of the city. I've got clearance to do it and I'm really good at hiding. As good as I am at finding people who are hiding from me. We take my dear Nyla and we run for it."
"And we stay alive how?" Mai asked.
June shrugged. "Why should I know? I guess we rob people or something. We could be bandits. Who the fuck cares?"
"I do," Mai said.
"That's the first thing I've ever heard you care about." June laughed again.
"I'm comfortable where I am."
"No, you're not. You wouldn't be here if you were," said June.
She was right.
"I'll think about it," Mai said. "That's not no. I really mean it, but it's not something I'm going to do on a whim."
"You're boring, but you're sexy so I'll forgive it." June smiled.
Mai turned away when she did too, and quickly went home.
She was cutting it close to two hours, but she doubted he would be concerned or angry.
He knew as well as she did that she would always come back and would never leave.